Threat identification-based collection of forensic data from endpoint devices

ABSTRACT

Techniques and mechanisms are disclosed enabling efficient collection of forensic data from client devices, also referred to herein as endpoint devices, of a networked computer system. Embodiments described herein further enable correlating forensic data with other types of non-forensic data from other data sources. A network security application described herein further enables generating various dashboards, visualizations, and other interfaces for managing forensic data collection, and displaying information related to collected forensic data and information related to identified correlations between items of forensic data and other items of non-forensic data.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 120 as a continuationof U.S. application Ser. No. 16/520,114, filed on Jul. 23, 2019, whichis a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/276,761, filed on Sep.26, 2016, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,419,494. The entire contents of thepriority applications are hereby incorporated by reference as if fullyset forth herein. The applicant(s) hereby rescind any disclaimer ofclaim scope in the priority applications or the prosecution historythereof, and advise the USPTO that the claims in this application may bebroader than any claim in the priority applications.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments relate generally to computer network security, and, morespecifically, to techniques for enabling efficient collection offorensic data from a distributed set of endpoint devices of a networkedcomputer system, and for correlating the collected forensic with datafrom other sources.

BACKGROUND

The approaches described in this section are approaches that could bepursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previouslyconceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it shouldnot be assumed that any of the approaches described in this sectionqualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in thissection.

Many types of organizations today rely on networked systems of computingdevices for an increasingly wide variety of business operations. Thesenetworked systems often include computing devices ranging from varioustypes of endpoint devices (e.g., desktop computers, workstations, laptopcomputers, tablet devices, mobile devices, etc.) to network devices andother components (e.g., routers, firewalls, web servers, email servers,etc.). The ever-increasing reliance on these types of systems has placedan importance on the ability to secure the systems against internal andexternal security threats such as malware, viruses, and network-basedattacks.

Endpoint devices, for example, are often highly susceptible to securitythreats in such computing environments. The task of securing endpointdevices is challenging due in part to a wide variety of endpoint devicetypes and to the wide range of user activities, application activity,and file activity occurring at such devices. Furthermore, a compromisedendpoint device in a networked system often poses an immediate threat tothe security of other devices on the same network. For example, amalware infection at one endpoint device may cause the device to attemptfurther spreading the malware or to perform other malicious activitywith respect to other devices on the network.

Organizations increasingly rely on security information and eventmanagement (SIEM) software, endpoint threat detection and response(ETDR) applications, and other similar applications to monitor endpointdevices and other networked components for potential occurrences ofknown security threats. However, security threats often aremulti-layered (e.g., involving several different types of applications,types network activity, etc.) and may implicate many separate endpointand non-endpoint components within a system, and efficiently monitoringand remediating these types of complex security threats remains achallenge.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates a networked computer environment in which anembodiment may be implemented;

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an example data intake and querysystem in which an embodiment may be implemented;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram that illustrates how indexers process, index,and store data received from forwarders in accordance with the disclosedembodiments;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram that illustrates how a search head and indexersperform a search query in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 5 illustrates a scenario where a common customer ID is found amonglog data received from three disparate sources in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIG. 6A illustrates a search screen in accordance with the disclosedembodiments;

FIG. 6B illustrates a data summary dialog that enables a user to selectvarious data sources in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIGS. 7A-7D illustrate a series of user interface screens for an exampledata model-driven report generation interface in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example search query received from a client andexecuted by search peers in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 9A illustrates a key indicators view in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIG. 9B illustrates an incident review dashboard in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIG. 9C illustrates a proactive monitoring tree in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIG. 9D illustrates a user interface screen displaying both log data andperformance data in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of an example cloud-based dataintake and query system in which an embodiment may be implemented;

FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of an example data intake and querysystem that performs searches across external data systems in accordancewith the disclosed embodiments;

FIGS. 12-14 illustrate a series of user interface screens for an exampledata model-driven report generation interface in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIGS. 15-17 illustrate example visualizations generated by a reportingapplication in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 18 is a block diagram illustrating an example data intake and querysystem in which forensic data is collected from endpoint devices inaccordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 19 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process for collectingforensic data from endpoint devices and other components of a networkedcomputer system in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 20 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process forcorrelating forensic data collected from various devices of a networkcomputer system with other types of non-forensic data in accordance withthe disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 21 illustrates a computer system upon which an embodiment may beimplemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of embodiments of the present invention. It will beapparent, however, that embodiments of the present invention may bepracticed without these specific details. In other instances, well-knownstructures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoidunnecessarily obscuring embodiments of the present invention.

Embodiments are described herein according to the following outline:

1.0. General Overview

2.0. Operating Environment

-   -   2.1. Host Devices    -   2.2. Client Devices    -   2.3. Client Device Applications    -   2.4. Data Server System    -   2.5. Data Ingestion        -   2.5.1. Input        -   2.5.2. Parsing        -   2.5.3. Indexing    -   2.6. Query Processing    -   2.7. Field Extraction    -   2.8. Example Search Screen    -   2.9. Data Modelling    -   2.10. Acceleration Techniques        -   2.10.1. Aggregation Technique        -   2.10.2. Keyword Index        -   2.10.3. High Performance Analytics Store        -   2.10.4. Accelerating Report Generation    -   2.11. Security Features    -   2.12. Data Center Monitoring    -   2.13. Cloud-Based System Overview    -   2.14. Searching Externally Archived Data        -   2.14.1. ERP Process Features

3.0. Functional Overview

-   -   3.1. Forensic Data Collection Overview    -   3.2. Collecting Forensic Data from Endpoint Devices    -   3.3. Correlating Forensic Data with Non-Forensic Data

4.0. Example Embodiments

5.0. Implementation Mechanism—Hardware Overview

6.0. Extensions and Alternatives

1.0. General Overview

Modern data centers and other computing environments can compriseanywhere from a few host computer systems to thousands of systemsconfigured to process data, service requests from remote clients, andperform numerous other computational tasks. During operation, variouscomponents within these computing environments often generatesignificant volumes of machine-generated data. For example, machine datais generated by various components in the information technology (IT)environments, such as servers, sensors, routers, mobile devices,Internet of Things (IoT) devices, etc. Machine-generated data caninclude system logs, network packet data, sensor data, applicationprogram data, error logs, stack traces, system performance data, etc. Ingeneral, machine-generated data can also include performance data,diagnostic information, and many other types of data that can beanalyzed to diagnose performance problems, monitor user interactions,and to derive other insights.

A number of tools are available to analyze machine data, that is,machine-generated data. In order to reduce the size of the potentiallyvast amount of machine data that may be generated, many of these toolstypically pre-process the data based on anticipated data-analysis needs.For example, pre-specified data items may be extracted from the machinedata and stored in a database to facilitate efficient retrieval andanalysis of those data items at search time. However, the rest of themachine data typically is not saved and discarded during pre-processing.As storage capacity becomes progressively cheaper and more plentiful,there are fewer incentives to discard these portions of machine data andmany reasons to retain more of the data.

This plentiful storage capacity is presently making it feasible to storemassive quantities of minimally processed machine data for laterretrieval and analysis. In general, storing minimally processed machinedata and performing analysis operations at search time can providegreater flexibility because it enables an analyst to search all of themachine data, instead of searching only a pre-specified set of dataitems. This may enable an analyst to investigate different aspects ofthe machine data that previously were unavailable for analysis.

However, analyzing and searching massive quantities of machine datapresents a number of challenges. For example, a data center, servers, ornetwork appliances may generate many different types and formats ofmachine data (e.g., system logs, network packet data (e.g., wire data,etc.), sensor data, application program data, error logs, stack traces,system performance data, operating system data, virtualization data,etc.) from thousands of different components, which can collectively bevery time-consuming to analyze. In another example, mobile devices maygenerate large amounts of information relating to data accesses,application performance, operating system performance, networkperformance, etc. There can be millions of mobile devices that reportthese types of information.

These challenges can be addressed by using an event-based data intakeand query system, such as the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system developed bySplunk Inc. of San Francisco, Calif. The SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system isthe leading platform for providing real-time operational intelligencethat enables organizations to collect, index, and searchmachine-generated data from various websites, applications, servers,networks, and mobile devices that power their businesses. The SPLUNK®ENTERPRISE system is particularly useful for analyzing data which iscommonly found in system log files, network data, and other data inputsources. Although many of the techniques described herein are explainedwith reference to a data intake and query system similar to the SPLUNK®ENTERPRISE system, these techniques are also applicable to other typesof data systems.

In the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system, machine-generated data are collectedand stored as “events”. An event comprises a portion of themachine-generated data and is associated with a specific point in time.For example, events may be derived from “time series data,” where thetime series data comprises a sequence of data points (e.g., performancemeasurements from a computer system, etc.) that are associated withsuccessive points in time. In general, each event can be associated witha timestamp that is derived from the raw data in the event, determinedthrough interpolation between temporally proximate events having knowntimestamps, or determined based on other configurable rules forassociating timestamps with events, etc.

In some instances, machine data can have a predefined format, where dataitems with specific data formats are stored at predefined locations inthe data. For example, the machine data may include data stored asfields in a database table. In other instances, machine data may nothave a predefined format, that is, the data is not at fixed, predefinedlocations, but the data does have repeatable patterns and is not random.This means that some machine data can comprise various data items ofdifferent data types and that may be stored at different locationswithin the data. For example, when the data source is an operatingsystem log, an event can include one or more lines from the operatingsystem log containing raw data that includes different types ofperformance and diagnostic information associated with a specific pointin time.

Examples of components which may generate machine data from which eventscan be derived include, but are not limited to, web servers, applicationservers, databases, firewalls, routers, operating systems, and softwareapplications that execute on computer systems, mobile devices, sensors,Internet of Things (IoT) devices, etc. The data generated by such datasources can include, for example and without limitation, server logfiles, activity log files, configuration files, messages, network packetdata, performance measurements, sensor measurements, etc.

The SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system uses flexible schema to specify how toextract information from the event data. A flexible schema may bedeveloped and redefined as needed. Note that a flexible schema may beapplied to event data “on the fly,” when it is needed (e.g., at searchtime, index time, ingestion time, etc.). When the schema is not appliedto event data until search time it may be referred to as a “late-bindingschema.”

During operation, the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system starts with raw inputdata (e.g., one or more system logs, streams of network packet data,sensor data, application program data, error logs, stack traces, systemperformance data, etc.). The system divides this raw data into blocks(e.g., buckets of data, each associated with a specific time frame,etc.), and parses the raw data to produce timestamped events. The systemstores the timestamped events in a data store. The system enables usersto run queries against the stored data to, for example, retrieve eventsthat meet criteria specified in a query, such as containing certainkeywords or having specific values in defined fields. As used hereinthroughout, data that is part of an event is referred to as “eventdata”. In this context, the term “field” refers to a location in theevent data containing one or more values for a specific data item. Aswill be described in more detail herein, the fields are defined byextraction rules (e.g., regular expressions) that derive one or morevalues from the portion of raw machine data in each event that has aparticular field specified by an extraction rule. The set of values soproduced are semantically-related (such as IP address), even though theraw machine data in each event may be in different formats (e.g.,semantically-related values may be in different positions in the eventsderived from different sources).

As noted above, the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system utilizes a late-bindingschema to event data while performing queries on events. One aspect of alate-binding schema is applying “extraction rules” to event data toextract values for specific fields during search time. Morespecifically, the extraction rules for a field can include one or moreinstructions that specify how to extract a value for the field from theevent data. An extraction rule can generally include any type ofinstruction for extracting values from data in events. In some cases, anextraction rule comprises a regular expression where a sequence ofcharacters forms a search pattern, in which case the rule is referred toas a “regex rule.” The system applies the regex rule to the event datato extract values for associated fields in the event data by searchingthe event data for the sequence of characters defined in the regex rule.

In the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system, a field extractor may be configured toautomatically generate extraction rules for certain field values in theevents when the events are being created, indexed, or stored, orpossibly at a later time. Alternatively, a user may manually defineextraction rules for fields using a variety of techniques. In contrastto a conventional schema for a database system, a late-binding schema isnot defined at data ingestion time. Instead, the late-binding schema canbe developed on an ongoing basis until the time a query is actuallyexecuted. This means that extraction rules for the fields in a query maybe provided in the query itself, or may be located during execution ofthe query. Hence, as a user learns more about the data in the events,the user can continue to refine the late-binding schema by adding newfields, deleting fields, or modifying the field extraction rules for usethe next time the schema is used by the system. Because the SPLUNK®ENTERPRISE system maintains the underlying raw data and useslate-binding schema for searching the raw data, it enables a user tocontinue investigating and learn valuable insights about the raw data.

In some embodiments, a common field name may be used to reference two ormore fields containing equivalent data items, even though the fields maybe associated with different types of events that possibly havedifferent data formats and different extraction rules. By enabling acommon field name to be used to identify equivalent fields fromdifferent types of events generated by disparate data sources, thesystem facilitates use of a “common information model” (CIM) across thedisparate data sources (further discussed with respect to FIG. 5 ).

2.0. Operating Environment

FIG. 1 illustrates a networked computer system 100 in which anembodiment may be implemented. Those skilled in the art would understandthat FIG. 1 represents one example of a networked computer system andother embodiments may use different arrangements.

The networked computer system 100 comprises one or more computingdevices. These one or more computing devices comprise any combination ofhardware and software configured to implement the various logicalcomponents described herein. For example, the one or more computingdevices may include one or more memories that store instructions forimplementing the various components described herein, one or morehardware processors configured to execute the instructions stored in theone or more memories, and various data repositories in the one or morememories for storing data structures utilized and manipulated by thevarious components.

In an embodiment, one or more client devices 102 are coupled to one ormore host devices 106 and a data intake and query system 108 via one ormore networks 104. Networks 104 broadly represent one or more LANs,WANs, cellular networks (e.g., LTE, HSPA, 3G, and other cellulartechnologies), or networks using any of wired, wireless, terrestrialmicrowave, or satellite links, and may include the public Internet.

2.1. Host Devices

In the illustrated embodiment, a system 100 includes one or more hostdevices 106. Host devices 106 may broadly include any number ofcomputers, virtual machine instances, or data centers that areconfigured to host or execute one or more instances of host applications114. In general, a host device 106 may be involved, directly orindirectly, in processing requests received from client devices 102.Each host device 106 may comprise, for example, one or more of a networkdevice, a web server, an application server, a database server, etc. Acollection of host devices 106 may be configured to implement anetwork-based service. For example, a provider of a network-basedservice may configure one or more host devices 106 and host applications114 (e.g., one or more web servers, application servers, databaseservers, etc.) to collectively implement the network-based application.

In general, client devices 102 communicate with one or more hostapplications 114 to exchange information. The communication between aclient device 102 and a host application 114 may, for example, be basedon the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or any other network protocol.Content delivered from the host application 114 to a client device 102may include, for example, HTML documents, media content, etc. Thecommunication between a client device 102 and host application 114 mayinclude sending various requests and receiving data packets. Forexample, in general, a client device 102 or application running on aclient device may initiate communication with a host application 114 bymaking a request for a specific resource (e.g., based on an HTTPrequest), and the application server may respond with the requestedcontent stored in one or more response packets.

In the illustrated embodiment, one or more of host applications 114 maygenerate various types of performance data during operation, includingevent logs, network data, sensor data, and other types ofmachine-generated data. For example, a host application 114 comprising aweb server may generate one or more web server logs in which details ofinteractions between the web server and any number of client devices 102is recorded. As another example, a host device 106 comprising a routermay generate one or more router logs that record information related tonetwork traffic managed by the router. As yet another example, a hostapplication 114 comprising a database server may generate one or morelogs that record information related to requests sent from other hostapplications 114 (e.g., web servers or application servers) for datamanaged by the database server.

2.2. Client Devices

Client devices 102 of FIG. 1 represent any computing device capable ofinteracting with one or more host devices 106 via a network 104.Examples of client devices 102 may include, without limitation, smartphones, tablet computers, handheld computers, wearable devices, laptopcomputers, desktop computers, servers, portable media players, gamingdevices, and so forth. In general, a client device 102 can provideaccess to different content, for instance, content provided by one ormore host devices 106, etc. Each client device 102 may comprise one ormore client applications 110, described in more detail in a separatesection hereinafter.

2.3. Client Device Applications

In an embodiment, each client device 102 may host or execute one or moreclient applications 110 that are capable of interacting with one or morehost devices 106 via one or more networks 104. For instance, a clientapplication 110 may be or comprise a web browser that a user may use tonavigate to one or more websites or other resources provided by one ormore host devices 106. As another example, a client application 110 maycomprise a mobile application or “app.” For example, an operator of anetwork-based service hosted by one or more host devices 106 may makeavailable one or more mobile apps that enable users of client devices102 to access various resources of the network-based service. As yetanother example, client applications 110 may include backgroundprocesses that perform various operations without direct interactionfrom a user. A client application 110 may include a “plug-in” or“extension” to another application, such as a web browser plug-in orextension.

In an embodiment, a client application 110 may include a monitoringcomponent 112. At a high level, the monitoring component 112 comprises asoftware component or other logic that facilitates generatingperformance data related to a client device's operating state, includingmonitoring network traffic sent and received from the client device andcollecting other device or application-specific information. Monitoringcomponent 112 may be an integrated component of a client application110, a plug-in, an extension, or any other type of add-on component.Monitoring component 112 may also be a stand-alone process.

In one embodiment, a monitoring component 112 may be created when aclient application 110 is developed, for example, by an applicationdeveloper using a software development kit (SDK). The SDK may includecustom monitoring code that can be incorporated into the codeimplementing a client application 110. When the code is converted to anexecutable application, the custom code implementing the monitoringfunctionality can become part of the application itself.

In some cases, an SDK or other code for implementing the monitoringfunctionality may be offered by a provider of a data intake and querysystem, such as a system 108. In such cases, the provider of the system108 can implement the custom code so that performance data generated bythe monitoring functionality is sent to the system 108 to facilitateanalysis of the performance data by a developer of the clientapplication or other users.

In an embodiment, the custom monitoring code may be incorporated intothe code of a client application 110 in a number of different ways, suchas the insertion of one or more lines in the client application codethat call or otherwise invoke the monitoring component 112. As such, adeveloper of a client application 110 can add one or more lines of codeinto the client application 110 to trigger the monitoring component 112at desired points during execution of the application. Code thattriggers the monitoring component may be referred to as a monitortrigger. For instance, a monitor trigger may be included at or near thebeginning of the executable code of the client application 110 such thatthe monitoring component 112 is initiated or triggered as theapplication is launched, or included at other points in the code thatcorrespond to various actions of the client application, such as sendinga network request or displaying a particular interface.

In an embodiment, the monitoring component 112 may monitor one or moreaspects of network traffic sent or received by a client application 110.For example, the monitoring component 112 may be configured to monitordata packets transmitted to or from one or more host applications 114.Incoming or outgoing data packets can be read or examined to identifynetwork data contained within the packets, for example, and otheraspects of data packets can be analyzed to determine a number of networkperformance statistics. Monitoring network traffic may enableinformation to be gathered particular to the network performanceassociated with a client application 110 or set of applications.

In an embodiment, network performance data refers to any type of datathat indicates information about the network or network performance.Network performance data may include, for instance, a URL requested, aconnection type (e.g., HTTP, HTTPS, etc.), a connection start time, aconnection end time, an HTTP status code, request length, responselength, request headers, response headers, connection status (e.g.,completion, response time(s), failure, etc.), and the like. Uponobtaining network performance data indicating performance of thenetwork, the network performance data can be transmitted to a dataintake and query system 108 for analysis.

Upon developing a client application 110 that incorporates a monitoringcomponent 112, the client application 110 can be distributed to clientdevices 102. Applications generally can be distributed to client devices102 in any manner, or they can be pre-loaded. In some cases, theapplication may be distributed to a client device 102 via an applicationmarketplace or other application distribution system. For instance, anapplication marketplace or other application distribution system mightdistribute the application to a client device based on a request fromthe client device to download the application.

Examples of functionality that enables monitoring performance of aclient device are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/524,748, entitled “UTILIZING PACKET HEADERS TO MONITOR NETWORKTRAFFIC IN ASSOCIATION WITH A CLIENT DEVICE”, filed on 27 Oct. 2014, andwhich is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for allpurposes.

In an embodiment, the monitoring component 112 may also monitor andcollect performance data related to one or more aspects of theoperational state of a client application 110 or client device 102. Forexample, a monitoring component 112 may be configured to collect deviceperformance information by monitoring one or more client deviceoperations, or by making calls to an operating system or one or moreother applications executing on a client device 102 for performanceinformation. Device performance information may include, for instance, acurrent wireless signal strength of the device, a current connectiontype and network carrier, current memory performance information, ageographic location of the device, a device orientation, and any otherinformation related to the operational state of the client device.

In an embodiment, the monitoring component 112 may also monitor andcollect other device profile information including, for example, a typeof client device, a manufacturer and model of the device, versions ofvarious software applications installed on the device, and so forth.

In general, a monitoring component 112 may be configured to generateperformance data in response to a monitor trigger in the code of aclient application 110 or other triggering application event, asdescribed above, and to store the performance data in one or more datarecords. Each data record, for example, may include a collection offield-value pairs, each field-value pair storing a particular item ofperformance data in association with a field for the item. For example,a data record generated by a monitoring component 112 may include a“networkLatency” field (not shown in the Figure) in which a value isstored. This field indicates a network latency measurement associatedwith one or more network requests. The data record may include a “state”field to store a value indicating a state of a network connection, andso forth for any number of aspects of collected performance data.

2.4. Data Server System

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of an exemplary data intake and querysystem 108, similar to the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system. System 108includes one or more forwarders 204 that receive data from a variety ofinput data sources 202, and one or more indexers 206 that process andstore the data in one or more data stores 208. These forwarders andindexers can comprise separate computer systems, or may alternativelycomprise separate processes executing on one or more computer systems.

Each data source 202 broadly represents a distinct source of data thatcan be consumed by a system 108. Examples of a data source 202 include,without limitation, data files, directories of files, data sent over anetwork, event logs, registries, etc.

During operation, the forwarders 204 identify which indexers 206 receivedata collected from a data source 202 and forward the data to theappropriate indexers. Forwarders 204 can also perform operations on thedata before forwarding, including removing extraneous data, detectingtimestamps in the data, parsing data, indexing data, routing data basedon criteria relating to the data being routed, or performing other datatransformations.

In an embodiment, a forwarder 204 may comprise a service accessible toclient devices 102 and host devices 106 via a network 104. For example,one type of forwarder 204 may be capable of consuming vast amounts ofreal-time data from a potentially large number of client devices 102 orhost devices 106. The forwarder 204 may, for example, comprise acomputing device which implements multiple data pipelines or “queues” tohandle forwarding of network data to indexers 206. A forwarder 204 mayalso perform many of the functions that are performed by an indexer. Forexample, a forwarder 204 may perform keyword extractions on raw data orparse raw data to create events. A forwarder 204 may generate timestamps for events. Additionally or alternatively, a forwarder 204 mayperform routing of events to indexers. Data store 208 may contain eventsderived from machine data from a variety of sources all pertaining tothe same component in an IT environment, and this data may be producedby the machine in question or by other components in the IT environment.

2.5. Data Ingestion

FIG. 3 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example data flow performedby Data Intake and Query system 108, in accordance with the disclosedembodiments. The data flow illustrated in FIG. 3 is provided forillustrative purposes only; those skilled in the art would understandthat one or more of the steps of the processes illustrated in FIG. 3 maybe removed or the ordering of the steps may be changed. Furthermore, forthe purposes of illustrating a clear example, one or more particularsystem components are described in the context of performing variousoperations during each of the data flow stages. For example, a forwarderis described as receiving and processing data during an input phase; anindexer is described as parsing and indexing data during parsing andindexing phases; and a search head is described as performing a searchquery during a search phase. However, other system arrangements anddistributions of the processing steps across system components may beused.

2.5.1. Input

At block 302, a forwarder receives data from an input source, such as adata source 202 shown in FIG. 2 . A forwarder initially may receive thedata as a raw data stream generated by the input source. For example, aforwarder may receive a data stream from a log file generated by anapplication server, from a stream of network data from a network device,or from any other source of data. In one embodiment, a forwarderreceives the raw data and may segment the data stream into “blocks”, or“buckets,” possibly of a uniform data size, to facilitate subsequentprocessing steps.

At block 304, a forwarder or other system component annotates each blockgenerated from the raw data with one or more metadata fields. Thesemetadata fields may, for example, provide information related to thedata block as a whole and may apply to each event that is subsequentlyderived from the data in the data block. For example, the metadatafields may include separate fields specifying each of a host, a source,and a source type related to the data block. A host field may contain avalue identifying a host name or IP address of a device that generatedthe data. A source field may contain a value identifying a source of thedata, such as a pathname of a file or a protocol and port related toreceived network data. A source type field may contain a valuespecifying a particular source type label for the data. Additionalmetadata fields may also be included during the input phase, such as acharacter encoding of the data, if known, and possibly other values thatprovide information relevant to later processing steps. In anembodiment, a forwarder forwards the annotated data blocks to anothersystem component (typically an indexer) for further processing.

The SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system allows forwarding of data from one SPLUNK®ENTERPRISE instance to another, or even to a third-party system. SPLUNK®ENTERPRISE system can employ different types of forwarders in aconfiguration.

In an embodiment, a forwarder may contain the essential componentsneeded to forward data. It can gather data from a variety of inputs andforward the data to a SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE server for indexing andsearching. It also can tag metadata (e.g., source, source type, host,etc.).

Additionally or optionally, in an embodiment, a forwarder has thecapabilities of the aforementioned forwarder as well as additionalcapabilities. The forwarder can parse data before forwarding the data(e.g., associate a time stamp with a portion of data and create anevent, etc.) and can route data based on criteria such as source or typeof event. It can also index data locally while forwarding the data toanother indexer.

2.5.2. Parsing

At block 306, an indexer receives data blocks from a forwarder andparses the data to organize the data into events. In an embodiment, toorganize the data into events, an indexer may determine a source typeassociated with each data block (e.g., by extracting a source type labelfrom the metadata fields associated with the data block, etc.) and referto a source type configuration corresponding to the identified sourcetype. The source type definition may include one or more properties thatindicate to the indexer to automatically determine the boundaries ofevents within the data. In general, these properties may include regularexpression-based rules or delimiter rules where, for example, eventboundaries may be indicated by predefined characters or characterstrings. These predefined characters may include punctuation marks orother special characters including, for example, carriage returns, tabs,spaces, line breaks, etc. If a source type for the data is unknown tothe indexer, an indexer may infer a source type for the data byexamining the structure of the data. Then, it can apply an inferredsource type definition to the data to create the events.

At block 308, the indexer determines a timestamp for each event. Similarto the process for creating events, an indexer may again refer to asource type definition associated with the data to locate one or moreproperties that indicate instructions for determining a timestamp foreach event. The properties may, for example, instruct an indexer toextract a time value from a portion of data in the event, to interpolatetime values based on timestamps associated with temporally proximateevents, to create a timestamp based on a time the event data wasreceived or generated, to use the timestamp of a previous event, or useany other rules for determining timestamps.

At block 310, the indexer associates with each event one or moremetadata fields including a field containing the timestamp (in someembodiments, a timestamp may be included in the metadata fields)determined for the event. These metadata fields may include a number of“default fields” that are associated with all events, and may alsoinclude one more custom fields as defined by a user. Similar to themetadata fields associated with the data blocks at block 304, thedefault metadata fields associated with each event may include a host,source, and source type field including or in addition to a fieldstoring the timestamp.

At block 312, an indexer may optionally apply one or moretransformations to data included in the events created at block 306. Forexample, such transformations can include removing a portion of an event(e.g., a portion used to define event boundaries, extraneous charactersfrom the event, other extraneous text, etc.), masking a portion of anevent (e.g., masking a credit card number), removing redundant portionsof an event, etc. The transformations applied to event data may, forexample, be specified in one or more configuration files and referencedby one or more source type definitions.

2.5.3. Indexing

At blocks 314 and 316, an indexer can optionally generate a keywordindex to facilitate fast keyword searching for event data. To build akeyword index, at block 314, the indexer identifies a set of keywords ineach event. At block 316, the indexer includes the identified keywordsin an index, which associates each stored keyword with referencepointers to events containing that keyword (or to locations withinevents where that keyword is located, other location identifiers, etc.).When an indexer subsequently receives a keyword-based query, the indexercan access the keyword index to quickly identify events containing thekeyword.

In some embodiments, the keyword index may include entries forname-value pairs found in events, where a name-value pair can include apair of keywords connected by a symbol, such as an equals sign or colon.This way, events containing these name-value pairs can be quicklylocated. In some embodiments, fields can automatically be generated forsome or all of the name-value pairs at the time of indexing. Forexample, if the string “dest=10.0.1.2” is found in an event, a fieldnamed “dest” may be created for the event, and assigned a value of“10.0.1.2”.

At block 318, the indexer stores the events with an associated timestampin a data store 208. Timestamps enable a user to search for events basedon a time range. In one embodiment, the stored events are organized into“buckets,” where each bucket stores events associated with a specifictime range based on the timestamps associated with each event. This maynot only improve time-based searching, but also allows for events withrecent timestamps, which may have a higher likelihood of being accessed,to be stored in a faster memory to facilitate faster retrieval. Forexample, buckets containing the most recent events can be stored inflash memory rather than on a hard disk.

Each indexer 206 may be responsible for storing and searching a subsetof the events contained in a corresponding data store 208. Bydistributing events among the indexers and data stores, the indexers cananalyze events for a query in parallel. For example, using map-reducetechniques, each indexer returns partial responses for a subset ofevents to a search head that combines the results to produce an answerfor the query. By storing events in buckets for specific time ranges, anindexer may further optimize data retrieval process by searching bucketscorresponding to time ranges that are relevant to a query.

Moreover, events and buckets can also be replicated across differentindexers and data stores to facilitate high availability and disasterrecovery as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/266,812,entitled “SITE-BASED SEARCH AFFINITY”, filed on 30 Apr. 2014, and inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/266,817, entitled “MULTI-SITECLUSTERING”, also filed on 30 Apr. 2014, each of which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

2.6. Query Processing

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram that illustrates an exemplary process that asearch head and one or more indexers may perform during a search query.At block 402, a search head receives a search query from a client. Atblock 404, the search head analyzes the search query to determine whatportion(s) of the query can be delegated to indexers and what portionsof the query can be executed locally by the search head. At block 406,the search head distributes the determined portions of the query to theappropriate indexers. In an embodiment, a search head cluster may takethe place of an independent search head where each search head in thesearch head cluster coordinates with peer search heads in the searchhead cluster to schedule jobs, replicate search results, updateconfigurations, fulfill search requests, etc. In an embodiment, thesearch head (or each search head) communicates with a master node (alsoknown as a cluster master, not shown in Fig.) that provides the searchhead with a list of indexers to which the search head can distribute thedetermined portions of the query. The master node maintains a list ofactive indexers and can also designate which indexers may haveresponsibility for responding to queries over certain sets of events. Asearch head may communicate with the master node before the search headdistributes queries to indexers to discover the addresses of activeindexers.

At block 408, the indexers to which the query was distributed, searchdata stores associated with them for events that are responsive to thequery. To determine which events are responsive to the query, theindexer searches for events that match the criteria specified in thequery. These criteria can include matching keywords or specific valuesfor certain fields. The searching operations at block 408 may use thelate-binding schema to extract values for specified fields from eventsat the time the query is processed. In an embodiment, one or more rulesfor extracting field values may be specified as part of a source typedefinition. The indexers may then either send the relevant events backto the search head, or use the events to determine a partial result, andsend the partial result back to the search head.

At block 410, the search head combines the partial results or eventsreceived from the indexers to produce a final result for the query. Thisfinal result may comprise different types of data depending on what thequery requested. For example, the results can include a listing ofmatching events returned by the query, or some type of visualization ofthe data from the returned events. In another example, the final resultcan include one or more calculated values derived from the matchingevents.

The results generated by the system 108 can be returned to a clientusing different techniques. For example, one technique streams resultsor relevant events back to a client in real-time as they are identified.Another technique waits to report the results to the client until acomplete set of results (which may include a set of relevant events or aresult based on relevant events) is ready to return to the client. Yetanother technique streams interim results or relevant events back to theclient in real-time until a complete set of results is ready, and thenreturns the complete set of results to the client. In another technique,certain results are stored as “search jobs” and the client may retrievethe results by referring the search jobs.

The search head can also perform various operations to make the searchmore efficient. For example, before the search head begins execution ofa query, the search head can determine a time range for the query and aset of common keywords that all matching events include. The search headmay then use these parameters to query the indexers to obtain a supersetof the eventual results. Then, during a filtering stage, the search headcan perform field-extraction operations on the superset to produce areduced set of search results. This speeds up queries that are performedon a periodic basis.

2.7. Field Extraction

The search head 210 allows users to search and visualize event dataextracted from raw machine data received from homogenous data sources.It also allows users to search and visualize event data extracted fromraw machine data received from heterogeneous data sources. The searchhead 210 includes various mechanisms, which may additionally reside inan indexer 206, for processing a query. Splunk Processing Language(SPL), used in conjunction with the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system, can beutilized to make a query. SPL is a pipelined search language in which aset of inputs is operated on by a first command in a command line, andthen a subsequent command following the pipe symbol “l” operates on theresults produced by the first command, and so on for additionalcommands. Other query languages, such as the Structured Query Language(“SQL”), can be used to create a query.

In response to receiving the search query, search head 210 usesextraction rules to extract values for the fields associated with afield or fields in the event data being searched. The search head 210obtains extraction rules that specify how to extract a value for certainfields from an event. Extraction rules can comprise regex rules thatspecify how to extract values for the relevant fields. In addition tospecifying how to extract field values, the extraction rules may alsoinclude instructions for deriving a field value by performing a functionon a character string or value retrieved by the extraction rule. Forexample, a transformation rule may truncate a character string, orconvert the character string into a different data format. In somecases, the query itself can specify one or more extraction rules.

The search head 210 can apply the extraction rules to event data that itreceives from indexers 206. Indexers 206 may apply the extraction rulesto events in an associated data store 208. Extraction rules can beapplied to all the events in a data store, or to a subset of the eventsthat have been filtered based on some criteria (e.g., event time stampvalues, etc.). Extraction rules can be used to extract one or morevalues for a field from events by parsing the event data and examiningthe event data for one or more patterns of characters, numbers,delimiters, etc., that indicate where the field begins and, optionally,ends.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of raw machine data received fromdisparate data sources. In this example, a user submits an order formerchandise using a vendor's shopping application program 501 running onthe user's system. In this example, the order was not delivered to thevendor's server due to a resource exception at the destination serverthat is detected by the middleware code 502. The user then sends amessage to the customer support 503 to complain about the order failingto complete. The three systems 501, 502, and 503 are disparate systemsthat do not have a common logging format. The order application 501sends log data 504 to the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system in one format, themiddleware code 502 sends error log data 505 in a second format, and thesupport server 503 sends log data 506 in a third format.

Using the log data received at one or more indexers 206 from the threesystems the vendor can uniquely obtain an insight into user activity,user experience, and system behavior. The search head 210 allows thevendor's administrator to search the log data from the three systemsthat one or more indexers 206 are responsible for searching, therebyobtaining correlated information, such as the order number andcorresponding customer ID number of the person placing the order. Thesystem also allows the administrator to see a visualization of relatedevents via a user interface. The administrator can query the search head210 for customer ID field value matches across the log data from thethree systems that are stored at the one or more indexers 206. Thecustomer ID field value exists in the data gathered from the threesystems, but the customer ID field value may be located in differentareas of the data given differences in the architecture of thesystems—there is a semantic relationship between the customer ID fieldvalues generated by the three systems. The search head 210 requestsevent data from the one or more indexers 206 to gather relevant eventdata from the three systems. It then applies extraction rules to theevent data in order to extract field values that it can correlate. Thesearch head may apply a different extraction rule to each set of eventsfrom each system when the event data format differs among systems. Inthis example, the user interface can display to the administrator theevent data corresponding to the common customer ID field values 507,508, and 509, thereby providing the administrator with insight into acustomer's experience.

Note that query results can be returned to a client, a search head, orany other system component for further processing. In general, queryresults may include a set of one or more events, a set of one or morevalues obtained from the events, a subset of the values, statisticscalculated based on the values, a report containing the values, or avisualization, such as a graph or chart, generated from the values.

2.8. Example Search Screen

FIG. 6A illustrates an example search screen 600 in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments. Search screen 600 includes a search bar 602 thataccepts user input in the form of a search string. It also includes atime range picker 612 that enables the user to specify a time range forthe search. For “historical searches” the user can select a specifictime range, or alternatively a relative time range, such as “today,”“yesterday” or “last week.” For “real-time searches,” the user canselect the size of a preceding time window to search for real-timeevents. Search screen 600 also initially displays a “data summary”dialog as is illustrated in FIG. 6B that enables the user to selectdifferent sources for the event data, such as by selecting specifichosts and log files.

After the search is executed, the search screen 600 in FIG. 6A candisplay the results through search results tabs 604, wherein searchresults tabs 604 includes: an “events tab” that displays variousinformation about events returned by the search; a “statistics tab” thatdisplays statistics about the search results; and a “visualization tab”that displays various visualizations of the search results. The eventstab illustrated in FIG. 6A displays a timeline graph 605 thatgraphically illustrates the number of events that occurred in one-hourintervals over the selected time range. It also displays an events list608 that enables a user to view the raw data in each of the returnedevents. It additionally displays a fields sidebar 606 that includesstatistics about occurrences of specific fields in the returned events,including “selected fields” that are pre-selected by the user, and“interesting fields” that are automatically selected by the system basedon pre-specified criteria.

2.9. Data Models

A data model is a hierarchically structured search-time mapping ofsemantic knowledge about one or more datasets. It encodes the domainknowledge necessary to build a variety of specialized searches of thosedatasets. Those searches, in turn, can be used to generate reports.

A data model is composed of one or more “objects” (or “data modelobjects”) that define or otherwise correspond to a specific set of data.

Objects in data models can be arranged hierarchically in parent/childrelationships. Each child object represents a subset of the datasetcovered by its parent object. The top-level objects in data models arecollectively referred to as “root objects.”

Child objects have inheritance. Data model objects are defined bycharacteristics that mostly break down into constraints and attributes.Child objects inherit constraints and attributes from their parentobjects and have additional constraints and attributes of their own.Child objects provide a way of filtering events from parent objects.Because a child object always provides an additional constraint inaddition to the constraints it has inherited from its parent object, thedataset it represents is always a subset of the dataset that its parentrepresents.

For example, a first data model object may define a broad set of datapertaining to e-mail activity generally, and another data model objectmay define specific datasets within the broad dataset, such as a subsetof the e-mail data pertaining specifically to e-mails sent. Examples ofdata models can include electronic mail, authentication, databases,intrusion detection, malware, application state, alerts, computeinventory, network sessions, network traffic, performance, audits,updates, vulnerabilities, etc. Data models and their objects can bedesigned by knowledge managers in an organization, and they can enabledownstream users to quickly focus on a specific set of data. Forexample, a user can simply select an “e-mail activity” data model objectto access a dataset relating to e-mails generally (e.g., sent orreceived), or select an “e-mails sent” data model object (or datasub-model object) to access a dataset relating to e-mails sent.

A data model object may be defined by (1) a set of search constraints,and (2) a set of fields. Thus, a data model object can be used toquickly search data to identify a set of events and to identify a set offields to be associated with the set of events. For example, an “e-mailssent” data model object may specify a search for events relating toe-mails that have been sent, and specify a set of fields that areassociated with the events. Thus, a user can retrieve and use the“e-mails sent” data model object to quickly search source data forevents relating to sent e-mails, and may be provided with a listing ofthe set of fields relevant to the events in a user interface screen.

A child of the parent data model may be defined by a search (typically anarrower search) that produces a subset of the events that would beproduced by the parent data model's search. The child's set of fieldscan include a subset of the set of fields of the parent data model oradditional fields. Data model objects that reference the subsets can bearranged in a hierarchical manner, so that child subsets of events areproper subsets of their parents. A user iteratively applies a modeldevelopment tool (not shown in Fig.) to prepare a query that defines asubset of events and assigns an object name to that subset. A childsubset is created by further limiting a query that generated a parentsubset. A late-binding schema of field extraction rules is associatedwith each object or subset in the data model.

Data definitions in associated schemas can be taken from the commoninformation model (CIM) or can be devised for a particular schema andoptionally added to the CIM. Child objects inherit fields from parentsand can include fields not present in parents. A model developer canselect fewer extraction rules than are available for the sourcesreturned by the query that defines events belonging to a model.Selecting a limited set of extraction rules can be a tool forsimplifying and focusing the data model, while allowing a userflexibility to explore the data subset. Development of a data model isfurther explained in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,788,525 and 8,788,526, bothentitled “DATA MODEL FOR MACHINE DATA FOR SEMANTIC SEARCH”, both issuedon 22 Jul. 2014, U.S. Pat. No. 8,983,994, entitled “GENERATION OF A DATAMODEL FOR SEARCHING MACHINE DATA”, issued on 17 Mar. 2015, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/611,232, entitled “GENERATION OF A DATA MODELAPPLIED TO QUERIES”, filed on 31 Jan. 2015, and U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/815,884, entitled “GENERATION OF A DATA MODEL APPLIED TOOBJECT QUERIES”, filed on 31 Jul. 2015, each of which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes. See, also,Knowledge Manager Manual, Build a Data Model, Splunk Enterprise 6.1.3pp. 150-204 (Aug. 25, 2014).

A data model can also include reports. One or more report formats can beassociated with a particular data model and be made available to runagainst the data model. A user can use child objects to design reportswith object datasets that already have extraneous data pre-filtered out.In an embodiment, the data intake and query system 108 provides the userwith the ability to produce reports (e.g., a table, chart,visualization, etc.) without having to enter SPL, SQL, or other querylanguage terms into a search screen. Data models are used as the basisfor the search feature.

Data models may be selected in a report generation interface. The reportgenerator supports drag-and-drop organization of fields to be summarizedin a report. When a model is selected, the fields with availableextraction rules are made available for use in the report. The user mayrefine or filter search results to produce more precise reports. Theuser may select some fields for organizing the report and select otherfields for providing detail according to the report organization. Forexample, “region” and “salesperson” are fields used for organizing thereport and sales data can be summarized (subtotaled and totaled) withinthis organization. The report generator allows the user to specify oneor more fields within events and apply statistical analysis on valuesextracted from the specified one or more fields. The report generatormay aggregate search results across sets of events and generatestatistics based on aggregated search results. Building reports usingthe report generation interface is further explained in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/503,335, entitled “GENERATING REPORTS FROMUNSTRUCTURED DATA”, filed on 30 Sep. 2014, and which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes, and in PivotManual, Splunk Enterprise 6.1.3 (Aug. 4, 2014). Data visualizations alsocan be generated in a variety of formats, by reference to the datamodel. Reports, data visualizations, and data model objects can be savedand associated with the data model for future use. The data model objectmay be used to perform searches of other data.

FIGS. 12, 13, and 7A-7D illustrate a series of user interface screenswhere a user may select report generation options using data models. Thereport generation process may be driven by a predefined data modelobject, such as a data model object defined or saved via a reportingapplication or a data model object obtained from another source. A usercan load a saved data model object using a report editor. For example,the initial search query and fields used to drive the report editor maybe obtained from a data model object. The data model object that is usedto drive a report generation process may define a search and a set offields. Upon loading of the data model object, the report generationprocess may enable a user to use the fields (e.g., the fields defined bythe data model object) to define criteria for a report (e.g., filters,split rows/columns, aggregates, etc.) and the search may be used toidentify events (e.g., to identify events responsive to the search) usedto generate the report. That is, for example, if a data model object isselected to drive a report editor, the graphical user interface of thereport editor may enable a user to define reporting criteria for thereport using the fields associated with the selected data model object,and the events used to generate the report may be constrained to theevents that match, or otherwise satisfy, the search constraints of theselected data model object.

The selection of a data model object for use in driving a reportgeneration may be facilitated by a data model object selectioninterface. FIG. 12 illustrates an example interactive data modelselection graphical user interface 1200 of a report editor that displaysa listing of available data models 1201. The user may select one of thedata models 1202.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example data model object selection graphicaluser interface 1300 that displays available data objects 1301 for theselected data object model 1202. The user may select one of thedisplayed data model objects 1302 for use in driving the reportgeneration process.

Once a data model object is selected by the user, a user interfacescreen 700 shown in FIG. 7A may display an interactive listing ofautomatic field identification options 701 based on the selected datamodel object. For example, a user may select one of the threeillustrated options (e.g., the “All Fields” option 702, the “SelectedFields” option 703, or the “Coverage” option (e.g., fields with at leasta specified % of coverage) 704). If the user selects the “All Fields”option 702, all of the fields identified from the events that werereturned in response to an initial search query may be selected. Thatis, for example, all of the fields of the identified data model objectfields may be selected. If the user selects the “Selected Fields” option703, only the fields from the fields of the identified data model objectfields that are selected by the user may be used. If the user selectsthe “Coverage” option 704, only the fields of the identified data modelobject fields meeting specified coverage criteria may be selected. Apercent coverage may refer to the percentage of events returned by theinitial search query that a given field appears in. Thus, for example,if an object dataset includes 10,000 events returned in response to aninitial search query, and the “avg_age” field appears in 854 of those10,000 events, then the “avg_age” field would have a coverage of 8.54%for that object dataset. If, for example, the user selects the“Coverage” option and specifies a coverage value of 2%, only fieldshaving a coverage value equal to or greater than 2% may be selected. Thenumber of fields corresponding to each selectable option may bedisplayed in association with each option. For example, “97” displayednext to the “All Fields” option 702 indicates that 97 fields will beselected if the “All Fields” option is selected. The “3” displayed nextto the “Selected Fields” option 703 indicates that 3 of the 97 fieldswill be selected if the “Selected Fields” option is selected. The “49”displayed next to the “Coverage” option 704 indicates that 49 of the 97fields (e.g., the 49 fields having a coverage of 2% or greater) will beselected if the “Coverage” option is selected. The number of fieldscorresponding to the “Coverage” option may be dynamically updated basedon the specified percent of coverage.

FIG. 7B illustrates an example graphical user interface screen (alsocalled the pivot interface) 705 displaying the reporting application's“Report Editor” page. The screen may display interactive elements fordefining various elements of a report. For example, the page includes a“Filters” element 706, a “Split Rows” element 707, a “Split Columns”element 708, and a “Column Values” element 709. The page may include alist of search results 711. In this example, the Split Rows element 707is expanded, revealing a listing of fields 710 that can be used todefine additional criteria (e.g., reporting criteria). The listing offields 710 may correspond to the selected fields (attributes). That is,the listing of fields 710 may list only the fields previously selected,either automatically or manually by a user. FIG. 7C illustrates aformatting dialogue 712 that may be displayed upon selecting a fieldfrom the listing of fields 710. The dialogue can be used to format thedisplay of the results of the selection (e.g., label the column to bedisplayed as “component”).

FIG. 7D illustrates an example graphical user interface screen 705including a table of results 713 based on the selected criteriaincluding splitting the rows by the “component” field. A column 714having an associated count for each component listed in the table may bedisplayed that indicates an aggregate count of the number of times thatthe particular field-value pair (e.g., the value in a row) occurs in theset of events responsive to the initial search query.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example graphical user interface screen 1400 thatallows the user to filter search results and to perform statisticalanalysis on values extracted from specific fields in the set of events.In this example, the top ten product names ranked by price are selectedas a filter 1401 that causes the display of the ten most popularproducts sorted by price. Each row is displayed by product name andprice 1402. This results in each product displayed in a column labeled“product name” along with an associated price in a column labeled“price” 1406. Statistical analysis of other fields in the eventsassociated with the ten most popular products have been specified ascolumn values 1403. A count of the number of successful purchases foreach product is displayed in column 1404. This statistic may be producedby filtering the search results by the product name, finding alloccurrences of a successful purchase in a field within the events andgenerating a total of the number of occurrences. A sum of the totalsales is displayed in column 1405, which is a result of themultiplication of the price and the number of successful purchases foreach product.

The reporting application allows the user to create graphicalvisualizations of the statistics generated for a report. For example,FIG. 15 illustrates an example graphical user interface 1500 thatdisplays a set of components and associated statistics 1501. Thereporting application allows the user to select a visualization of thestatistics in a graph (e.g., bar chart, scatter plot, area chart, linechart, pie chart, radial gauge, marker gauge, filler gauge, etc.). FIG.16 illustrates an example of a bar chart visualization 1600 of an aspectof the statistical data 1501. FIG. 17 illustrates a scatter plotvisualization 1700 of an aspect of the statistical data 1501.

2.10. Acceleration Technique

The above-described system provides significant flexibility by enablinga user to analyze massive quantities of minimally processed data “on thefly” at search time instead of storing pre-specified portions of thedata in a database at ingestion time. This flexibility enables a user tosee valuable insights, correlate data, and perform subsequent queries toexamine interesting aspects of the data that may not have been apparentat ingestion time.

However, performing extraction and analysis operations at search timecan involve a large amount of data and require a large number ofcomputational operations, which can cause delays in processing thequeries. Advantageously, SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system employs a number ofunique acceleration techniques that have been developed to speed upanalysis operations performed at search time. These techniques include:(1) performing search operations in parallel across multiple indexers;(2) using a keyword index; (3) using a high performance analytics store;and (4) accelerating the process of generating reports. These noveltechniques are described in more detail below.

2.10.1. Aggregation Technique

To facilitate faster query processing, a query can be structured suchthat multiple indexers perform the query in parallel, while aggregationof search results from the multiple indexers is performed locally at thesearch head. For example, FIG. 8 illustrates how a search query 802received from a client at a search head 210 can split into two phases,including: (1) subtasks 804 (e.g., data retrieval or simple filtering)that may be performed in parallel by indexers 206 for execution, and (2)a search results aggregation operation 806 to be executed by the searchhead when the results are ultimately collected from the indexers.

During operation, upon receiving search query 802, a search head 210determines that a portion of the operations involved with the searchquery may be performed locally by the search head. The search headmodifies search query 802 by substituting “stats” (create aggregatestatistics over results sets received from the indexers at the searchhead) with “prestats” (create statistics by the indexer from localresults set) to produce search query 804, and then distributes searchquery 804 to distributed indexers, which are also referred to as “searchpeers.” Note that search queries may generally specify search criteriaor operations to be performed on events that meet the search criteria.Search queries may also specify field names, as well as search criteriafor the values in the fields or operations to be performed on the valuesin the fields. Moreover, the search head may distribute the full searchquery to the search peers as illustrated in FIG. 4 , or mayalternatively distribute a modified version (e.g., a more restrictedversion) of the search query to the search peers. In this example, theindexers are responsible for producing the results and sending them tothe search head. After the indexers return the results to the searchhead, the search head aggregates the received results 806 to form asingle search result set. By executing the query in this manner, thesystem effectively distributes the computational operations across theindexers while minimizing data transfers.

2.10.2. Keyword Index

As described above with reference to the flow charts in FIG. 3 and FIG.4 , data intake and query system 108 can construct and maintain one ormore keyword indices to quickly identify events containing specifickeywords. This technique can greatly speed up the processing of queriesinvolving specific keywords. As mentioned above, to build a keywordindex, an indexer first identifies a set of keywords. Then, the indexerincludes the identified keywords in an index, which associates eachstored keyword with references to events containing that keyword, or tolocations within events where that keyword is located. When an indexersubsequently receives a keyword-based query, the indexer can access thekeyword index to quickly identify events containing the keyword.

2.10.3. High Performance Analytics Store

To speed up certain types of queries, some embodiments of system 108create a high performance analytics store, which is referred to as a“summarization table,” that contains entries for specific field-valuepairs. Each of these entries keeps track of instances of a specificvalue in a specific field in the event data and includes references toevents containing the specific value in the specific field. For example,an example entry in a summarization table can keep track of occurrencesof the value “94107” in a “ZIP code” field of a set of events and theentry includes references to all of the events that contain the value“94107” in the ZIP code field. This optimization technique enables thesystem to quickly process queries that seek to determine how many eventshave a particular value for a particular field. To this end, the systemcan examine the entry in the summarization table to count instances ofthe specific value in the field without having to go through theindividual events or perform data extractions at search time. Also, ifthe system needs to process all events that have a specific field-valuecombination, the system can use the references in the summarizationtable entry to directly access the events to extract further informationwithout having to search all of the events to find the specificfield-value combination at search time.

In some embodiments, the system maintains a separate summarization tablefor each of the above-described time-specific buckets that stores eventsfor a specific time range. A bucket-specific summarization tableincludes entries for specific field-value combinations that occur inevents in the specific bucket. Alternatively, the system can maintain aseparate summarization table for each indexer. The indexer-specificsummarization table includes entries for the events in a data store thatare managed by the specific indexer. Indexer-specific summarizationtables may also be bucket-specific.

The summarization table can be populated by running a periodic querythat scans a set of events to find instances of a specific field-valuecombination, or alternatively instances of all field-value combinationsfor a specific field. A periodic query can be initiated by a user, orcan be scheduled to occur automatically at specific time intervals. Aperiodic query can also be automatically launched in response to a querythat asks for a specific field-value combination.

In some cases, when the summarization tables may not cover all of theevents that are relevant to a query, the system can use thesummarization tables to obtain partial results for the events that arecovered by summarization tables, but may also have to search throughother events that are not covered by the summarization tables to produceadditional results. These additional results can then be combined withthe partial results to produce a final set of results for the query. Thesummarization table and associated techniques are described in moredetail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,682,925, entitled “DISTRIBUTED HIGHPERFORMANCE ANALYTICS STORE”, issued on 25 Mar. 2014, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/170,159, entitled “SUPPLEMENTING A HIGHPERFORMANCE ANALYTICS STORE WITH EVALUATION OF INDIVIDUAL EVENTS TORESPOND TO AN EVENT QUERY”, filed on 31 Jan. 2014, and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/815,973, entitled “STORAGE MEDIUM AND CONTROLDEVICE”, filed on 21 Feb. 2014, each of which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

2.10.4. Accelerating Report Generation

In some embodiments, a data server system such as the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISEsystem can accelerate the process of periodically generating updatedreports based on query results. To accelerate this process, asummarization engine automatically examines the query to determinewhether generation of updated reports can be accelerated by creatingintermediate summaries. If reports can be accelerated, the summarizationengine periodically generates a summary covering data obtained during alatest non-overlapping time period. For example, where the query seeksevents meeting specified criteria, a summary for the time periodincludes only events within the time period that meet the specifiedcriteria. Similarly, if the query seeks statistics calculated from theevents, such as the number of events that match the specified criteria,then the summary for the time period includes the number of events inthe period that match the specified criteria.

In addition to the creation of the summaries, the summarization engineschedules the periodic updating of the report associated with the query.During each scheduled report update, the query engine determines whetherintermediate summaries have been generated covering portions of the timeperiod covered by the report update. If so, then the report is generatedbased on the information contained in the summaries. Also, if additionalevent data has been received and has not yet been summarized, and isrequired to generate the complete report, the query can be run on thisadditional event data. Then, the results returned by this query on theadditional event data, along with the partial results obtained from theintermediate summaries, can be combined to generate the updated report.This process is repeated each time the report is updated. Alternatively,if the system stores events in buckets covering specific time ranges,then the summaries can be generated on a bucket-by-bucket basis. Notethat producing intermediate summaries can save the work involved inre-running the query for previous time periods, so advantageously onlythe newer event data needs to be processed while generating an updatedreport. These report acceleration techniques are described in moredetail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,589,403, entitled “COMPRESSED JOURNALING INEVENT TRACKING FILES FOR METADATA RECOVERY AND REPLICATION”, issued on19 Nov. 2013, U.S. Pat. No. 8,412,696, entitled “REAL TIME SEARCHING ANDREPORTING”, issued on 2 Apr. 2011, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,589,375 and8,589,432, both also entitled “REAL TIME SEARCHING AND REPORTING”, bothissued on 19 Nov. 2013, each of which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

2.11. Security Features

The SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE platform provides various schemas, dashboards andvisualizations that simplify developers' task to create applicationswith additional capabilities. One such application is the SPLUNK® APPFOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY, which performs monitoring and alertingoperations and includes analytics to facilitate identifying both knownand unknown security threats based on large volumes of data stored bythe SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system. SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITYprovides the security practitioner with visibility intosecurity-relevant threats found in the enterprise infrastructure bycapturing, monitoring, and reporting on data from enterprise securitydevices, systems, and applications. Through the use of SPLUNK®ENTERPRISE searching and reporting capabilities, SPLUNK® APP FORENTERPRISE SECURITY provides a top-down and bottom-up view of anorganization's security posture.

The SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY leverages SPLUNK® ENTERPRISEsearch-time normalization techniques, saved searches, and correlationsearches to provide visibility into security-relevant threats andactivity and generate notable events for tracking. The App enables thesecurity practitioner to investigate and explore the data to find new orunknown threats that do not follow signature-based patterns.

Conventional Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systemsthat lack the infrastructure to effectively store and analyze largevolumes of security-related data. Traditional SIEM systems typically usefixed schemas to extract data from pre-defined security-related fieldsat data ingestion time and storing the extracted data in a relationaldatabase. This traditional data extraction process (and associatedreduction in data size) that occurs at data ingestion time inevitablyhampers future incident investigations that may need original data todetermine the root cause of a security issue, or to detect the onset ofan impending security threat.

In contrast, the SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY system stores largevolumes of minimally processed security-related data at ingestion timefor later retrieval and analysis at search time when a live securitythreat is being investigated. To facilitate this data retrieval process,the SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY provides pre-specified schemasfor extracting relevant values from the different types ofsecurity-related event data and enables a user to define such schemas.

The SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY can process many types ofsecurity-related information. In general, this security-relatedinformation can include any information that can be used to identifysecurity threats. For example, the security-related information caninclude network-related information, such as IP addresses, domain names,asset identifiers, network traffic volume, uniform resource locatorstrings, and source addresses. The process of detecting security threatsfor network-related information is further described in U.S. Pat. No.8,826,434, entitled “SECURITY THREAT DETECTION BASED ON INDICATIONS INBIG DATA OF ACCESS TO NEWLY REGISTERED DOMAINS”, issued on 2 Sep. 2014,U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/956,252, entitled “INVESTIGATIVE ANDDYNAMIC DETECTION OF POTENTIAL SECURITY-THREAT INDICATORS FROM EVENTS INBIG DATA”, filed on 31 Jul. 2013, U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/445,018, entitled “GRAPHIC DISPLAY OF SECURITY THREATS BASED ONINDICATIONS OF ACCESS TO NEWLY REGISTERED DOMAINS”, filed on 28 Jul.2014, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/445,023, entitled “SECURITYTHREAT DETECTION OF NEWLY REGISTERED DOMAINS”, filed on 28 Jul. 2014,U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/815,971, entitled “SECURITY THREATDETECTION USING DOMAIN NAME ACCESSES”, filed on 1 Aug. 2015, and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/815,972, entitled “SECURITY THREATDETECTION USING DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATIONS”, filed on 1 Aug. 2015, eachof which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for allpurposes. Security-related information can also include malwareinfection data and system configuration information, as well as accesscontrol information, such as login/logout information and access failurenotifications. The security-related information can originate fromvarious sources within a data center, such as hosts, virtual machines,storage devices and sensors. The security-related information can alsooriginate from various sources in a network, such as routers, switches,email servers, proxy servers, gateways, firewalls andintrusion-detection systems.

During operation, the SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY facilitatesdetecting “notable events” that are likely to indicate a securitythreat. These notable events can be detected in a number of ways: (1) auser can notice a correlation in the data and can manually identify acorresponding group of one or more events as “notable;” or (2) a usercan define a “correlation search” specifying criteria for a notableevent, and every time one or more events satisfy the criteria, theapplication can indicate that the one or more events are notable. A usercan alternatively select a pre-defined correlation search provided bythe application. Note that correlation searches can be run continuouslyor at regular intervals (e.g., every hour) to search for notable events.Upon detection, notable events can be stored in a dedicated “notableevents index,” which can be subsequently accessed to generate variousvisualizations containing security-related information. Also, alerts canbe generated to notify system operators when important notable eventsare discovered.

The SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY provides various visualizationsto aid in discovering security threats, such as a “key indicators view”that enables a user to view security metrics, such as counts ofdifferent types of notable events. For example, FIG. 9A illustrates anexample key indicators view 900 that comprises a dashboard, which candisplay a value 901, for various security-related metrics, such asmalware infections 902. It can also display a change in a metric value903, which indicates that the number of malware infections increased by63 during the preceding interval. Key indicators view 900 additionallydisplays a histogram panel 904 that displays a histogram of notableevents organized by urgency values, and a histogram of notable eventsorganized by time intervals. This key indicators view is described infurther detail in pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/956,338,entitled “KEY INDICATORS VIEW”, filed on 31 Jul. 2013, and which ishereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

These visualizations can also include an “incident review dashboard”that enables a user to view and act on “notable events.” These notableevents can include: (1) a single event of high importance, such as anyactivity from a known web attacker; or (2) multiple events thatcollectively warrant review, such as a large number of authenticationfailures on a host followed by a successful authentication. For example,FIG. 9B illustrates an example incident review dashboard 910 thatincludes a set of incident attribute fields 911 that, for example,enables a user to specify a time range field 912 for the displayedevents. It also includes a timeline 913 that graphically illustrates thenumber of incidents that occurred in time intervals over the selectedtime range. It additionally displays an events list 914 that enables auser to view a list of all of the notable events that match the criteriain the incident attributes fields 911. To facilitate identifyingpatterns among the notable events, each notable event can be associatedwith an urgency value (e.g., low, medium, high, critical), which isindicated in the incident review dashboard. The urgency value for adetected event can be determined based on the severity of the event andthe priority of the system component associated with the event.

2.12. Data Center Monitoring

As mentioned above, the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE platform provides variousfeatures that simplify the developer's task to create variousapplications. One such application is SPLUNK® APP FOR VMWARE® thatprovides operational visibility into granular performance metrics, logs,tasks and events, and topology from hosts, virtual machines and virtualcenters. It empowers administrators with an accurate real-time pictureof the health of the environment, proactively identifying performanceand capacity bottlenecks.

Conventional data-center-monitoring systems lack the infrastructure toeffectively store and analyze large volumes of machine-generated data,such as performance information and log data obtained from the datacenter. In conventional data-center-monitoring systems,machine-generated data is typically pre-processed prior to being stored,for example, by extracting pre-specified data items and storing them ina database to facilitate subsequent retrieval and analysis at searchtime. However, the rest of the data is not saved and discarded duringpre-processing.

In contrast, the SPLUNK® APP FOR VMWARE® stores large volumes ofminimally processed machine data, such as performance information andlog data, at ingestion time for later retrieval and analysis at searchtime when a live performance issue is being investigated. In addition todata obtained from various log files, this performance-relatedinformation can include values for performance metrics obtained throughan application programming interface (API) provided as part of thevSphere Hypervisor™ system distributed by VMware, Inc. of Palo Alto,Calif. For example, these performance metrics can include: (1)CPU-related performance metrics; (2) disk-related performance metrics;(3) memory-related performance metrics; (4) network-related performancemetrics; (5) energy-usage statistics; (6) data-traffic-relatedperformance metrics; (7) overall system availability performancemetrics; (8) cluster-related performance metrics; and (9) virtualmachine performance statistics. Such performance metrics are describedin U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/167,316, entitled “CORRELATIONFOR USER-SELECTED TIME RANGES OF VALUES FOR PERFORMANCE METRICS OFCOMPONENTS IN AN INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT WITH LOG DATA FROMTHAT INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT”, filed on 29 Jan. 2014, andwhich is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for allpurposes.

To facilitate retrieving information of interest from performance dataand log files, the SPLUNK® APP FOR VMWARE® provides pre-specifiedschemas for extracting relevant values from different types ofperformance-related event data, and also enables a user to define suchschemas.

The SPLUNK® APP FOR VMWARE® additionally provides various visualizationsto facilitate detecting and diagnosing the root cause of performanceproblems. For example, one such visualization is a “proactive monitoringtree” that enables a user to easily view and understand relationshipsamong various factors that affect the performance of a hierarchicallystructured computing system. This proactive monitoring tree enables auser to easily navigate the hierarchy by selectively expanding nodesrepresenting various entities (e.g., virtual centers or computingclusters) to view performance information for lower-level nodesassociated with lower-level entities (e.g., virtual machines or hostsystems). Example node-expansion operations are illustrated in FIG. 9C,wherein nodes 933 and 934 are selectively expanded. Note that nodes931-939 can be displayed using different patterns or colors to representdifferent performance states, such as a critical state, a warning state,a normal state or an unknown/offline state. The ease of navigationprovided by selective expansion in combination with the associatedperformance-state information enables a user to quickly diagnose theroot cause of a performance problem. The proactive monitoring tree isdescribed in further detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/253,490, entitled “PROACTIVE MONITORING TREE WITH SEVERITY STATESORTING”, filed on 15 Apr. 2014, and U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/812,948, also entitled “PROACTIVE MONITORING TREE WITH SEVERITY STATESORTING”, filed on 29 Jul. 2015, each of which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety for all purposes.

The SPLUNK® APP FOR VMWARE® also provides a user interface that enablesa user to select a specific time range and then view heterogeneous datacomprising events, log data, and associated performance metrics for theselected time range. For example, the screen illustrated in FIG. 9Ddisplays a listing of recent “tasks and events” and a listing of recent“log entries” for a selected time range above a performance-metric graphfor “average CPU core utilization” for the selected time range. Notethat a user is able to operate pull-down menus 942 to selectivelydisplay different performance metric graphs for the selected time range.This enables the user to correlate trends in the performance-metricgraph with corresponding event and log data to quickly determine theroot cause of a performance problem. This user interface is described inmore detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/167,316, entitled“CORRELATION FOR USER-SELECTED TIME RANGES OF VALUES FOR PERFORMANCEMETRICS OF COMPONENTS IN AN INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT WITH LOGDATA FROM THAT INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT”, filed on 29 Jan.2014, and which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety forall purposes.

2.13. Cloud-Based System Overview

The example data intake and query system 108 described in reference toFIG. 2 comprises several system components, including one or moreforwarders, indexers, and search heads. In some environments, a user ofa data intake and query system 108 may install and configure, oncomputing devices owned and operated by the user, one or more softwareapplications that implement some or all of these system components. Forexample, a user may install a software application on server computersowned by the user and configure each server to operate as one or more ofa forwarder, an indexer, a search head, etc. This arrangement generallymay be referred to as an “on-premises” solution. That is, the system 108is installed and operates on computing devices directly controlled bythe user of the system. Some users may prefer an on-premises solutionbecause it may provide a greater level of control over the configurationof certain aspects of the system (e.g., security, privacy, standards,controls, etc.). However, other users may instead prefer an arrangementin which the user is not directly responsible for providing and managingthe computing devices upon which various components of system 108operate.

In one embodiment, to provide an alternative to an entirely on-premisesenvironment for system 108, one or more of the components of a dataintake and query system instead may be provided as a cloud-basedservice. In this context, a cloud-based service refers to a servicehosted by one more computing resources that are accessible to end usersover a network, for example, by using a web browser or other applicationon a client device to interface with the remote computing resources. Forexample, a service provider may provide a cloud-based data intake andquery system by managing computing resources configured to implementvarious aspects of the system (e.g., forwarders, indexers, search heads,etc.) and by providing access to the system to end users via a network.Typically, a user may pay a subscription or other fee to use such aservice. Each subscribing user of the cloud-based service may beprovided with an account that enables the user to configure a customizedcloud-based system based on the user's preferences.

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of an example cloud-based dataintake and query system. Similar to the system of FIG. 2 , the networkedcomputer system 1000 includes input data sources 202 and forwarders 204.These input data sources and forwarders may be in a subscriber's privatecomputing environment. Alternatively, they might be directly managed bythe service provider as part of the cloud service. In the example system1000, one or more forwarders 204 and client devices 1002 are coupled toa cloud-based data intake and query system 1006 via one or more networks1004. Network 1004 broadly represents one or more LANs, WANs, cellularnetworks, intranetworks, internetworks, etc., using any of wired,wireless, terrestrial microwave, satellite links, etc., and may includethe public Internet, and is used by client devices 1002 and forwarders204 to access the system 1006. Similar to the system of 108, each of theforwarders 204 may be configured to receive data from an input sourceand to forward the data to other components of the system 1006 forfurther processing.

In an embodiment, a cloud-based data intake and query system 1006 maycomprise a plurality of system instances 1008. In general, each systeminstance 1008 may include one or more computing resources managed by aprovider of the cloud-based system 1006 made available to a particularsubscriber. The computing resources comprising a system instance 1008may, for example, include one or more servers or other devicesconfigured to implement one or more forwarders, indexers, search heads,and other components of a data intake and query system, similar tosystem 108. As indicated above, a subscriber may use a web browser orother application of a client device 1002 to access a web portal orother interface that enables the subscriber to configure an instance1008.

Providing a data intake and query system as described in reference tosystem 108 as a cloud-based service presents a number of challenges.Each of the components of a system 108 (e.g., forwarders, indexers andsearch heads) may at times refer to various configuration files storedlocally at each component. These configuration files typically mayinvolve some level of user configuration to accommodate particular typesof data a user desires to analyze and to account for other userpreferences. However, in a cloud-based service context, users typicallymay not have direct access to the underlying computing resourcesimplementing the various system components (e.g., the computingresources comprising each system instance 1008) and may desire to makesuch configurations indirectly, for example, using one or more web-basedinterfaces. Thus, the techniques and systems described herein forproviding user interfaces that enable a user to configure source typedefinitions are applicable to both on-premises and cloud-based servicecontexts, or some combination thereof (e.g., a hybrid system where bothan on-premises environment such as SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE and a cloud-basedenvironment such as SPLUNK CLOUD™ are centrally visible).

2.14. Searching Externally Archived Data

FIG. 11 shows a block diagram of an example of a data intake and querysystem 108 that provides transparent search facilities for data systemsthat are external to the data intake and query system. Such facilitiesare available in the HUNK® system provided by Splunk Inc. of SanFrancisco, Calif. HUNK® represents an analytics platform that enablesbusiness and IT teams to rapidly explore, analyze, and visualize data inHadoop and NoSQL data stores.

The search head 210 of the data intake and query system receives searchrequests from one or more client devices 1104 over network connections1120. As discussed above, the data intake and query system 108 mayreside in an enterprise location, in the cloud, etc. FIG. 11 illustratesthat multiple client devices 1104 a, 1104 b, . . . , 1104 n maycommunicate with the data intake and query system 108. The clientdevices 1104 may communicate with the data intake and query system usinga variety of connections. For example, one client device in FIG. 11 isillustrated as communicating over an Internet (Web) protocol, anotherclient device is illustrated as communicating via a command lineinterface, and another client device is illustrated as communicating viaa system developer kit (SDK).

The search head 210 analyzes the received search request to identifyrequest parameters. If a search request received from one of the clientdevices 1104 references an index maintained by the data intake and querysystem, then the search head 210 connects to one or more indexers 206 ofthe data intake and query system for the index referenced in the requestparameters. That is, if the request parameters of the search requestreference an index, then the search head accesses the data in the indexvia the indexer. The data intake and query system 108 may include one ormore indexers 206, depending on system access resources andrequirements. As described further below, the indexers 206 retrieve datafrom their respective local data stores 208 as specified in the searchrequest. The indexers and their respective data stores can comprise oneor more storage devices and typically reside on the same system, thoughthey may be connected via a local network connection.

If the request parameters of the received search request reference anexternal data collection, which is not accessible to the indexers 206 orunder the management of the data intake and query system, then thesearch head 210 can access the external data collection through anExternal Result Provider (ERP) process 1110. An external data collectionmay be referred to as a “virtual index” (plural, “virtual indices”). AnERP process provides an interface through which the search head 210 mayaccess virtual indices.

Thus, a search reference to an index of the system relates to a locallystored and managed data collection. In contrast, a search reference to avirtual index relates to an externally stored and managed datacollection, which the search head may access through one or more ERPprocesses 1110, 1112. FIG. 11 shows two ERP processes 1110, 1112 thatconnect to respective remote (external) virtual indices, which areindicated as a Hadoop or another system 1114 (e.g., Amazon S3, AmazonEMR, other Hadoop Compatible File Systems (HCFS), etc.) and a relationaldatabase management system (RDBMS) 1116. Other virtual indices mayinclude other file organizations and protocols, such as Structured QueryLanguage (SQL) and the like. The ellipses between the ERP processes1110, 1112 indicate optional additional ERP processes of the data intakeand query system 108. An ERP process may be a computer process that isinitiated or spawned by the search head 210 and is executed by thesearch data intake and query system 108. Alternatively or additionally,an ERP process may be a process spawned by the search head 210 on thesame or different host system as the search head 210 resides.

The search head 210 may spawn a single ERP process in response tomultiple virtual indices referenced in a search request, or the searchhead may spawn different ERP processes for different virtual indices.Generally, virtual indices that share common data configurations orprotocols may share ERP processes. For example, all search queryreferences to a Hadoop file system may be processed by the same ERPprocess, if the ERP process is suitably configured. Likewise, all searchquery references to an SQL database may be processed by the same ERPprocess. In addition, the search head may provide a common ERP processfor common external data source types (e.g., a common vendor may utilizea common ERP process, even if the vendor includes different data storagesystem types, such as Hadoop and SQL). Common indexing schemes also maybe handled by common ERP processes, such as flat text files or Weblogfiles.

The search head 210 determines the number of ERP processes to beinitiated via the use of configuration parameters that are included in asearch request message. Generally, there is a one-to-many relationshipbetween an external results provider “family” and ERP processes. Thereis also a one-to-many relationship between an ERP process andcorresponding virtual indices that are referred to in a search request.For example, using RDBMS, assume two independent instances of such asystem by one vendor, such as one RDBMS for production and another RDBMSused for development. In such a situation, it is likely preferable (butoptional) to use two ERP processes to maintain the independent operationas between production and development data. Both of the ERPs, however,will belong to the same family, because the two RDBMS system types arefrom the same vendor.

The ERP processes 1110, 1112 receive a search request from the searchhead 210. The search head may optimize the received search request forexecution at the respective external virtual index. Alternatively, theERP process may receive a search request as a result of analysisperformed by the search head or by a different system process. The ERPprocesses 1110, 1112 can communicate with the search head 210 viaconventional input/output routines (e.g., standard in/standard out,etc.). In this way, the ERP process receives the search request from aclient device such that the search request may be efficiently executedat the corresponding external virtual index.

The ERP processes 1110, 1112 may be implemented as a process of the dataintake and query system. Each ERP process may be provided by the dataintake and query system, or may be provided by process or applicationproviders who are independent of the data intake and query system. Eachrespective ERP process may include an interface application installed ata computer of the external result provider that ensures propercommunication between the search support system and the external resultprovider. The ERP processes 1110, 1112 generate appropriate searchrequests in the protocol and syntax of the respective virtual indices1114, 1116, each of which corresponds to the search request received bythe search head 210. Upon receiving search results from theircorresponding virtual indices, the respective ERP process passes theresult to the search head 210, which may return or display the resultsor a processed set of results based on the returned results to therespective client device.

Client devices 1104 may communicate with the data intake and querysystem 108 through a network interface 1120, e.g., one or more LANs,WANs, cellular networks, intranetworks, or internetworks using any ofwired, wireless, terrestrial microwave, satellite links, etc., and mayinclude the public Internet.

The analytics platform utilizing the External Result Provider processdescribed in more detail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,738,629, entitled “EXTERNALRESULT PROVIDED PROCESS FOR RETRIEVING DATA STORED USING A DIFFERENTCONFIGURATION OR PROTOCOL”, issued on 27 May 2014, U.S. Pat. No.8,738,587, entitled “PROCESSING A SYSTEM SEARCH REQUEST BY RETRIEVINGRESULTS FROM BOTH A NATIVE INDEX AND A VIRTUAL INDEX”, issued on 25 Jul.2013, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/266,832, entitled “PROCESSINGA SYSTEM SEARCH REQUEST ACROSS DISPARATE DATA COLLECTION SYSTEMS”, filedon 1 May 2014, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/449,144, entitled“PROCESSING A SYSTEM SEARCH REQUEST INCLUDING EXTERNAL DATA SOURCES”,filed on 31 Jul. 2014, each of which is hereby incorporated by referencein its entirety for all purposes.

2.14.1. ERP Process Features

The ERP processes described above may include two operation modes: astreaming mode and a reporting mode. The ERP processes can operate instreaming mode only, in reporting mode only, or in both modessimultaneously. Operating in both modes simultaneously is referred to asmixed mode operation. In a mixed mode operation, the ERP at some pointcan stop providing the search head with streaming results and onlyprovide reporting results thereafter, or the search head at some pointmay start ignoring streaming results it has been using and only usereporting results thereafter.

The streaming mode returns search results in real time, with minimalprocessing, in response to the search request. The reporting modeprovides results of a search request with processing of the searchresults prior to providing them to the requesting search head, which inturn provides results to the requesting client device. ERP operationwith such multiple modes provides greater performance flexibility withregard to report time, search latency, and resource utilization.

In a mixed mode operation, both streaming mode and reporting mode areoperating simultaneously. The streaming mode results (e.g., the raw dataobtained from the external data source) are provided to the search head,which can then process the results data (e.g., break the raw data intoevents, timestamp it, filter it, etc.) and integrate the results datawith the results data from other external data sources, or from datastores of the search head. The search head performs such processing andcan immediately start returning interim (streaming mode) results to theuser at the requesting client device; simultaneously, the search head iswaiting for the ERP process to process the data it is retrieving fromthe external data source as a result of the concurrently executingreporting mode.

In some instances, the ERP process initially operates in a mixed mode,such that the streaming mode operates to enable the ERP quickly toreturn interim results (e.g., some of the raw or unprocessed datanecessary to respond to a search request) to the search head, enablingthe search head to process the interim results and begin providing tothe client or search requester interim results that are responsive tothe query. Meanwhile, in this mixed mode, the ERP also operatesconcurrently in reporting mode, processing portions of raw data in amanner responsive to the search query. Upon determining that it hasresults from the reporting mode available to return to the search head,the ERP may halt processing in the mixed mode at that time (or somelater time) by stopping the return of data in streaming mode to thesearch head and switching to reporting mode only. The ERP at this pointstarts sending interim results in reporting mode to the search head,which in turn may then present this processed data responsive to thesearch request to the client or search requester. Typically the searchhead switches from using results from the ERP's streaming mode ofoperation to results from the ERP's reporting mode of operation when thehigher bandwidth results from the reporting mode outstrip the amount ofdata processed by the search head in the streaming mode of ERPoperation.

A reporting mode may have a higher bandwidth because the ERP does nothave to spend time transferring data to the search head for processingall the raw data. In addition, the ERP may optionally direct anotherprocessor to do the processing.

The streaming mode of operation does not need to be stopped to gain thehigher bandwidth benefits of a reporting mode; the search head couldsimply stop using the streaming mode results—and start using thereporting mode results—when the bandwidth of the reporting mode hascaught up with or exceeded the amount of bandwidth provided by thestreaming mode. Thus, a variety of triggers and ways to accomplish asearch head's switch from using streaming mode results to usingreporting mode results may be appreciated by one skilled in the art.

The reporting mode can involve the ERP process (or an external system)performing event breaking, time stamping, filtering of events to matchthe search query request, and calculating statistics on the results. Theuser can request particular types of data, such as if the search queryitself involves types of events, or the search request may ask forstatistics on data, such as on events that meet the search request. Ineither case, the search head understands the query language used in thereceived query request, which may be a proprietary language. Oneexemplary query language is Splunk Processing Language (SPL) developedby the assignee of the application, Splunk Inc. The search headtypically understands how to use that language to obtain data from theindexers, which store data in a format used by the SPLUNK® Enterprisesystem.

The ERP processes support the search head, as the search head is notordinarily configured to understand the format in which data is storedin external data sources such as Hadoop or SQL data systems. Rather, theERP process performs that translation from the query submitted in thesearch support system's native format (e.g., SPL if SPLUNK® ENTERPRISEis used as the search support system) to a search query request formatthat will be accepted by the corresponding external data system. Theexternal data system typically stores data in a different format fromthat of the search support system's native index format, and it utilizesa different query language (e.g., SQL or MapReduce, rather than SPL orthe like).

As noted, the ERP process can operate in the streaming mode alone. Afterthe ERP process has performed the translation of the query request andreceived raw results from the streaming mode, the search head canintegrate the returned data with any data obtained from local datasources (e.g., native to the search support system), other external datasources, and other ERP processes (if such operations were required tosatisfy the terms of the search query). An advantage of mixed modeoperation is that, in addition to streaming mode, the ERP process isalso executing concurrently in reporting mode. Thus, the ERP process(rather than the search head) is processing query results (e.g.,performing event breaking, timestamping, filtering, possibly calculatingstatistics if required to be responsive to the search query request,etc.). It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that additionaltime is needed for the ERP process to perform the processing in such aconfiguration. Therefore, the streaming mode will allow the search headto start returning interim results to the user at the client devicebefore the ERP process can complete sufficient processing to startreturning any search results. The switchover between streaming andreporting mode happens when the ERP process determines that theswitchover is appropriate, such as when the ERP process determines itcan begin returning meaningful results from its reporting mode.

The operation described above illustrates the source of operationallatency: streaming mode has low latency (immediate results) and usuallyhas relatively low bandwidth (fewer results can be returned per unit oftime). In contrast, the concurrently running reporting mode hasrelatively high latency (it has to perform a lot more processing beforereturning any results) and usually has relatively high bandwidth (moreresults can be processed per unit of time). For example, when the ERPprocess does begin returning report results, it returns more processedresults than in the streaming mode, because, e.g., statistics only needto be calculated to be responsive to the search request. That is, theERP process doesn't have to take time to first return raw data to thesearch head. As noted, the ERP process could be configured to operate instreaming mode alone and return just the raw data for the search head toprocess in a way that is responsive to the search request.Alternatively, the ERP process can be configured to operate in thereporting mode only. Also, the ERP process can be configured to operatein streaming mode and reporting mode concurrently, as described, withthe ERP process stopping the transmission of streaming results to thesearch head when the concurrently running reporting mode has caught upand started providing results. The reporting mode does not require theprocessing of all raw data that is responsive to the search queryrequest before the ERP process starts returning results; rather, thereporting mode usually performs processing of chunks of events andreturns the processing results to the search head for each chunk.

For example, an ERP process can be configured to merely return thecontents of a search result file verbatim, with little or no processingof results. That way, the search head performs all processing (such asparsing byte streams into events, filtering, etc.). The ERP process canbe configured to perform additional intelligence, such as analyzing thesearch request and handling all the computation that a native searchindexer process would otherwise perform. In this way, the configured ERPprocess provides greater flexibility in features while operatingaccording to desired preferences, such as response latency and resourcerequirements.

2.14. IT Service Monitoring

As previously mentioned, the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE platform providesvarious schemas, dashboards and visualizations that make it easy fordevelopers to create applications to provide additional capabilities.One such application is SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™, which performsmonitoring and alerting operations. It also includes analytics to helpan analyst diagnose the root cause of performance problems based onlarge volumes of data stored by the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system ascorrelated to the various services an IT organization provides (aservice-centric view). This differs significantly from conventional ITmonitoring systems that lack the infrastructure to effectively store andanalyze large volumes of service-related event data. Traditional servicemonitoring systems typically use fixed schemas to extract data frompre-defined fields at data ingestion time, wherein the extracted data istypically stored in a relational database. This data extraction processand associated reduction in data content that occurs at data ingestiontime inevitably hampers future investigations, when all of the originaldata may be needed to determine the root cause of or contributingfactors to a service issue.

In contrast, a SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ system stores largevolumes of minimally-processed service-related data at ingestion timefor later retrieval and analysis at search time, to perform regularmonitoring, or to investigate a service issue. To facilitate this dataretrieval process, SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ enables a user todefine an IT operations infrastructure from the perspective of theservices it provides. In this service-centric approach, a service suchas corporate e-mail may be defined in terms of the entities employed toprovide the service, such as host machines and network devices. Eachentity is defined to include information for identifying all of theevent data that pertains to the entity, whether produced by the entityitself or by another machine, and considering the many various ways theentity may be identified in raw machine data (such as by a URL, an IPaddress, or machine name). The service and entity definitions canorganize event data around a service so that all of the event datapertaining to that service can be easily identified. This capabilityprovides a foundation for the implementation of Key PerformanceIndicators.

One or more Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) are defined for a servicewithin the SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ application. Each KPImeasures an aspect of service performance at a point in time or over aperiod of time (aspect KPI's). Each KPI is defined by a search querythat derives a KPI value from the machine data of events associated withthe entities that provide the service. Information in the entitydefinitions may be used to identify the appropriate events at the time aKPI is defined or whenever a KPI value is being determined. The KPIvalues derived over time may be stored to build a valuable repository ofcurrent and historical performance information for the service, and therepository, itself, may be subject to search query processing. AggregateKPIs may be defined to provide a measure of service performancecalculated from a set of service aspect KPI values; this aggregate mayeven be taken across defined timeframes or across multiple services. Aparticular service may have an aggregate KPI derived from substantiallyall of the aspect KPI's of the service to indicate an overall healthscore for the service.

SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ facilitates the production ofmeaningful aggregate KPI's through a system of KPI thresholds and statevalues. Different KPI definitions may produce values in differentranges, and so the same value may mean something very different from oneKPI definition to another. To address this, SPLUNK® IT SERVICEINTELLIGENCE™ implements a translation of individual KPI values to acommon domain of “state” values. For example, a KPI range of values maybe 1-100, or 50-275, while values in the state domain may be ‘critical,’‘warning,’ ‘normal,’ and ‘informational’. Thresholds associated with aparticular KPI definition determine ranges of values for that KPI thatcorrespond to the various state values. In one case, KPI values 95-100may be set to correspond to ‘critical’ in the state domain. KPI valuesfrom disparate KPI's can be processed uniformly once they are translatedinto the common state values using the thresholds. For example, “normal80% of the time” can be applied across various KPI's. To providemeaningful aggregate KPI's, a weighting value can be assigned to eachKPI so that its influence on the calculated aggregate KPI value isincreased or decreased relative to the other KPI's.

One service in an IT environment often impacts, or is impacted by,another service. SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ can reflect thesedependencies. For example, a dependency relationship between a corporatee-mail service and a centralized authentication service can be reflectedby recording an association between their respective servicedefinitions. The recorded associations establish a service dependencytopology that informs the data or selection options presented in a GUI,for example. (The service dependency topology is like a “map” showinghow services are connected based on their dependencies.) The servicetopology may itself be depicted in a GUI and may be interactive to allownavigation among related services.

Entity definitions in SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ can includeinformational fields that can serve as metadata, implied data fields, orattributed data fields for the events identified by other aspects of theentity definition. Entity definitions in SPLUNK® IT SERVICEINTELLIGENCE™ can also be created and updated by an import of tabulardata (as represented in a CSV, another delimited file, or a search queryresult set). The import may be GUI-mediated or processed using importparameters from a GUI-based import definition process. Entitydefinitions in SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ can also be associatedwith a service by means of a service definition rule. Processing therule results in the matching entity definitions being associated withthe service definition. The rule can be processed at creation time, andthereafter on a scheduled or on-demand basis. This allows dynamic,rule-based updates to the service definition.

During operation, SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ can recognizeso-called “notable events” that may indicate a service performanceproblem or other situation of interest. These notable events can berecognized by a “correlation search” specifying trigger criteria for anotable event: every time KPI values satisfy the criteria, theapplication indicates a notable event. A severity level for the notableevent may also be specified. Furthermore, when trigger criteria aresatisfied, the correlation search may additionally or alternativelycause a service ticket to be created in an IT service management (ITSM)system, such as a systems available from ServiceNow, Inc., of SantaClara, Calif.

SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ provides various visualizations builton its service-centric organization of event data and the KPI valuesgenerated and collected. Visualizations can be particularly useful formonitoring or investigating service performance. SPLUNK® IT SERVICEINTELLIGENCE™ provides a service monitoring interface suitable as thehome page for ongoing IT service monitoring. The interface isappropriate for settings such as desktop use or for a wall-mounteddisplay in a network operations center (NOC). The interface mayprominently display a services health section with tiles for theaggregate KPI's indicating overall health for defined services and ageneral KPI section with tiles for KPI's related to individual serviceaspects. These tiles may display KPI information in a variety of ways,such as by being colored and ordered according to factors like the KPIstate value. They also can be interactive and navigate to visualizationsof more detailed KPI information.

SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ provides a service-monitoring dashboardvisualization based on a user-defined template. The template can includeuser-selectable widgets of varying types and styles to display KPIinformation. The content and the appearance of widgets can responddynamically to changing KPI information. The KPI widgets can appear inconjunction with a background image, user drawing objects, or othervisual elements, that depict the IT operations environment, for example.The KPI widgets or other GUI elements can be interactive so as toprovide navigation to visualizations of more detailed KPI information.

SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ provides a visualization showingdetailed time-series information for multiple KPI's in parallel graphlanes. The length of each lane can correspond to a uniform time range,while the width of each lane may be automatically adjusted to fit thedisplayed KPI data. Data within each lane may be displayed in a userselectable style, such as a line, area, or bar chart. During operation auser may select a position in the time range of the graph lanes toactivate lane inspection at that point in time. Lane inspection maydisplay an indicator for the selected time across the graph lanes anddisplay the KPI value associated with that point in time for each of thegraph lanes. The visualization may also provide navigation to aninterface for defining a correlation search, using information from thevisualization to pre-populate the definition.

SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ provides a visualization for incidentreview showing detailed information for notable events. The incidentreview visualization may also show summary information for the notableevents over a time frame, such as an indication of the number of notableevents at each of a number of severity levels. The severity leveldisplay may be presented as a rainbow chart with the warmest colorassociated with the highest severity classification. The incident reviewvisualization may also show summary information for the notable eventsover a time frame, such as the number of notable events occurring withinsegments of the time frame. The incident review visualization maydisplay a list of notable events within the time frame ordered by anynumber of factors, such as time or severity. The selection of aparticular notable event from the list may display detailed informationabout that notable event, including an identification of the correlationsearch that generated the notable event.

SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ provides pre-specified schemas forextracting relevant values from the different types of service-relatedevent data. It also enables a user to define such schemas.

3.0. Functional Overview

Approaches, techniques, and mechanisms are disclosed enabling efficientcollection of forensic data from client devices, also referred to hereinas endpoint devices, of a networked computer system. Embodimentsdescribed herein further enable correlating forensic data with othertypes of non-forensic data from other data sources. A network securityapplication described herein further enables generating variousdashboards, visualizations, and other interfaces for managing forensicdata collection, and for displaying information related to collectedforensic data and related to identified correlations between items offorensic data and other items of non-forensic data.

As used herein, forensic data refers broadly to various types ofinformation related to the activity, operation, or status of endpointdevices such as desktop computers, workstations, laptop computers,tablet computers, mobile devices, and so forth. Forensic data mayinclude, but is not limited to, file system information, registryinformation, process information, service information, and any otherinformation related to or derived from data reflecting activity at or inthe endpoint device. The collection of such forensic data, for example,may enable a deeper analysis and understanding of data identified by anetwork security application and potentially corresponding to a securitythreat affecting one or more computing devices. As an example, one ormore of the identified events may be notable events, described above inSection 2.11, which might correspond to potential malware or virusinfections, network-based attacks, user access attacks, or othersecurity threats affecting one or more computing devices. In oneembodiment, a security analyst or other user can manage forensic datacollection and analyze collected forensic data using a network securityapplication such as, for example, the SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISESECURITY described above in Section 2.11.

According to one embodiment, a forwarder component is installed onendpoint devices of a networked computer system from which forensic datacollection is desired. As described above in Section 2.4, a forwarderconsumes data from a variety of input data sources, optionally performsoperations on the data (e.g., to detect timestamps in the data, parsethe data, index the data, etc.), and sends the data to an indexer foranalysis or storage. A forwarder component as described herein furtherenables the collection of forensic data from endpoint devices incoordination with one or more centralized components such as a searchhead 210 or other component of a data intake and query system 108.

In one embodiment, forwarder components at endpoint devices areconfigured to periodically send a “check-in” message to a search head orother centralized component. In response to receiving a check-inmessage, the centralized component determines, based on an identifier ofthe endpoint device included in the check-in message, whether anyforensic data requests are pending for the endpoint device. As describedin more detail hereinafter, a forensic data request for a particularendpoint device may be created by a user on an ad hoc basis (e.g., basedon the user desiring more information about the activity of one or moreendpoint devices), based on a network security application identifyingdata of interest (e.g., identifying occurrences of one or more notableevents or other data indicating a potential security threat), or inresponse to any other conditions. If the centralized component receivingthe check-in message determines that any data requests are pending forthe endpoint device, instructions are sent to the endpoint device whichcause the endpoint device to collect and send the requested forensicdata for analysis or storage (e.g., to an indexer 206 for analysis orstorage in a data store 208). In other embodiments, a centralizedcomponent may send forensic data request instructions to particularendpoint devices without receiving check-in messages from endpointdevices.

According to an embodiment, a network security application is configuredto correlate forensic data with other non-forensic event data stored byor accessible to a same data intake and query system (e.g., a dataintake and query system 108). In general, non-forensic event data mayinclude any data stored by or accessible to a data intake and querysystem (or other external system) other than the forensic data collectedfrom endpoint devices. For example, non-forensic data may include, butis not limited to, network data generated based on the activity of oneor more network devices (e.g., routers, switches, firewalls, etc.), logdata generated based on the activities of one or more internal servers(e.g., web servers, file servers, application servers, etc.), or anyother data from endpoint devices or other system components other thanthe forensic data collected from endpoint devices. At a high level,correlating forensic data with non-forensic data may include queryingthe data to locate data items from both the forensic data and thenon-forensic data which share one or more attributes (e.g., a sharedrange of time, one or more same device identifiers, one or more samenetwork addresses, etc.). The correlation of forensic data andnon-forensic data may enable analysts and other users to more easilydetect occurrences of multi-layered security threats involving anynumber of different components, thereby enabling those users to moreefficiently validate and effectively respond to a wide variety ofsecurity threats.

According to an embodiment, a network security application further isable to generate and cause display of interfaces which enable securityanalysts or other users to manage the collection of forensic data fromendpoint devices and to view various dashboards, panels, and othervisualizations related to the collected forensic data and associatedcorrelations. For example, a network security application may generateinterfaces enabling analysts to create data request packages definingparticular types of forensic data to collect from particular endpointdevices, to configure associations between particular queries and datarequest packages, to issue ad hoc forensic data requests, and to viewvisualizations of collected forensic data and correlations of collectedforensic data with other types of data, among other features

In other aspects, embodiments of the invention encompass a computerapparatus and a computer-readable medium configured to carry out theforegoing.

3.1. Forensic Data Collection Overview

One aspect of network security often involves monitoring and addressingsecurity risks related to endpoint devices in a computer network. Forexample, a network security investigation may begin with a securityanalyst viewing an incident review dashboard (e.g., as depicted in FIGS.9A and 9B) and noticing one or more notable events of interest. Thenotable events, for example, may indicate that unusual activity hasoccurred with respect to one or more devices corresponding to apotential malware or virus infection, brute-force login attack,denial-of-service attack, or other type of security threat. This maylead an analyst to desire more information about endpoint devices andother components within the network potentially affected by theidentified events.

According to embodiments described herein, an analyst or other user mayuse a network security application to configure collection of forensicdata from devices in these and other instances to facilitate moreefficient verification and remediation of potential security threats. Inone embodiment, an analyst may use a network security application toissue forensic data requests to particular endpoint devices in responseto the analyst detecting event data of interest (e.g., in response toviewing notable events in a dashboard), and to view information relatedto the collected forensic data in conjunction with the event dataoriginally of interest.

In an embodiment, a network security application further enablesautomated collection of forensic data in response to identifyingpotential security threats. For example, the network securityapplication can execute queries for identifying security threats relatedto endpoint devices and cause automatic collection of forensic data fromendpoint devices based on data identified by the queries, where thecollected forensic data may provide additional information related to apotential security threat. For example, an analyst or other user mayconfigure a recurring query to search for event data indicating one ormore potential security threats, and associate the query with anautomated forensic data collection request that is issued in response tothe query finding event data of interest.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram illustrating an example data intake and querysystem in which forensic data is collected from endpoint devices andother system components. Similar to the system of FIG. 2 , the networkeddata intake and query system 1800 includes a plurality of endpointdevices 1802, each comprising one or more input data sources (e.g., logfiles, wire data, device activity information, etc.) and a forwarder1804 component. In FIG. 18 , the endpoint devices 1802 are coupled toone or more indexers 1806 and search heads 1810 via one or morenetworks. These networks broadly represent one or more LANs, WANs,cellular networks, intranetworks, internetworks, etc., using any ofwired, wireless, terrestrial microwave, satellite links, etc., and mayinclude the public Internet.

In an embodiment, an endpoint device 1802 broadly represents any type ofcomputing device from which forensic data can be collected including,for example, a desktop computer, workstation, laptop computer, tabletcomputer, mobile device, and so forth. In other examples, an endpointdevice 1802 may also include other types of computing devices, such asnetwork devices (e.g., routers, switches, a network tap, etc.), varioustypes of servers (e.g., web servers, file servers, email servers), orvarious types of security devices and applications (e.g., devices orapplications providing firewall services, user identity managementservices, antimalware and antivirus application services, etc.).Although only two endpoint devices are shown in FIG. 18 , in practicalimplementations, a networked computer system may include any number ofseparate endpoint devices.

In an embodiment, each of the endpoint devices 1802 comprises aforwarder 1804 component which, among other features, collects varioustypes of forensic data from input data sources in response to receivingforensic data collection requests, and sends the collected forensic datato other components of the data intake and query system for storage,analysis, or processing. In an embodiment, a forwarder 1804 may send toindexers 1806 event data generated based on forensic data collected bythe forwarder (e.g., by segmenting the raw forensic data stored at theendpoint devices into a plurality of events and associating a time stampwith each of the events), or a forwarder 1804 may send raw forensic data(e.g., by sending unprocessed or minimally processed log files, registryinformation, file signatures, etc.) to indexers 1806 where event data isindexed and stored based on the collected forensic data.

In an embodiment, a forwarder 1804 may be an integrated component of anendpoint device (e.g., an application component running on the endpointdevice), or a forwarder may comprise an external component that collectsforensic data from one or more separate endpoint devices 1802. Forexample, a forwarder 1804 may include a device separate from anyendpoint device and which collects data from a set of multiple endpointdevices 1802 on the same network. In other examples, a forwarder 1804may be a remote server that communicates with one or more applicationsrunning on an endpoint device to coordinate the collection of forensicdata.

In an embodiment, forensic data collected from endpoint devices 1802broadly may include any information related to the activity, operation,or status of an endpoint device 1802. For example, forensic data mayinclude various types of information related to a file system present onthe endpoint device such as, for example, file names, file paths, filehashes, file size information, file types, file modification timestamps, file creation time stamps, file access time stamps, etc. Asanother example, forensic data may include information related to aregistry stored on an endpoint device such as, for example, registryhive information, registry path information, registry key names,registry value names, registry value data, registry value text, registryvalue types, registry modification time stamps, registry userinformation, etc. As yet another example, forensic data may includeinformation related to services running on endpoint device such as, forexample, service names, descriptive names, service description names,service status information, service type information, service start modeinformation, service file paths, service file hashes, servicedynamic-link library (DLL) file paths, service DLL file hashes, etc. Asyet another example, forensic data may include information related toprocesses running on an endpoint device such as, for example, processnames, process file paths, process file names, process arguments, etc.As yet another example, forensic data may include user information,other types of log data generated by an endpoint device, and prefetchfile information (e.g., information related to application startupprocesses).

In one embodiment, a network security application enables the creationof reusable data collection packages specifying items of forensic datato be collected from endpoint devices. A data collection packagegenerally may include one or more files, scripts, messages, etc., whichidentify data items to be collected by one or more endpoints. Forexample, if an analyst often desires to collect a similar set ofinformation related to potential malware infections from endpointdevices, the analyst may use a network security application to create adata collection package identifying particular file system information,file name information, process information, etc., which may be useful indiagnosing the presence of a potential malware infections. In anembodiment, data collection packages may be stored at a centralizedcomponent (e.g., a search head 1810) and sent to endpoint devices 1802in response to forensic data collection requests or data collectionpackages may be stored at endpoint devices 1802 and referenced in datacollection requests received by the endpoint devices.

As described in more detail hereinafter, a network security applicationmay enable analysts and other users to create and issue data collectionpackages on an ad hoc basis (e.g., in response to an analyst viewing anotable event affecting one or more endpoint devices), to preconfigureand associate one or more data collection packages with one or morerecurring queries, or to use data collection packages in any othermanner. For example, an analyst may create a recurring query whichsearches for event data indicating potential malware infections, and theanalyst may further associate the query with a data collection packagespecifying items of forensic data to collect which may aid the analystwith further diagnosing potential malware infections. In this manner,when an instance of the query identifies data affecting one or moreparticular endpoint devices, the network security application can causethe associated data collection package to be automatically issued to theaffected endpoint devices so that additional information can becollected for further analysis.

3.2. Collecting Forensic Data from Endpoint Devices

In an embodiment, a network security application enables analysts andother users to manage the collection of forensic data from endpointdevices and other components of a networked computer system. FIG. 19 isa flow diagram 1900 illustrating an example process for collectingforensic data from endpoint devices. The various elements of flowdiagram 1900 may be performed in a variety of systems, including systemssuch as a data intake and query system 1800 described above. In anembodiment, each of the processes described in connection with thefunctional blocks described below may be implemented using one or morecomputer programs, other software elements, or digital logic in any of ageneral-purpose computer or a special-purpose computer, while performingdata retrieval, transformation, and storage operations that involveinteracting with and transforming the physical state of memory of thecomputer.

At block 1902, a query for identifying a security threat related to anendpoint device is executed, the query identifying the security threatbased at least in part on data from a component of an informationtechnology or security environment that is not the endpoint device. Forexample, a search head 1810 may identify one or more events stored inone or more data stores 1808 of a data intake and query system 1800 oridentify one or more events obtained from one or more external systems(e.g., external firewall applications, antivirus and antimalwareapplications, user identity management applications, etc.). A securitythreat may be identified based on events generated from data collectedfrom endpoint devices 1802, data collected from other devices of thenetworked computer system (e.g., network devices, email servers, webservers, security appliances, etc.), or from external systems andapplications (e.g., external security applications or systems, networkdevices, etc.).

In one embodiment, a query for identifying a security threat may be anindividual query, or a recurring query. For example, an analyst may beinterested in detecting occurrences of brute-force login attacks againstdevices within a particular network. In this example, the analyst mightcreate a query which searches for event data indicating potentialoccurrences of login attacks against any of the devices. For example,the query may search for event data indicating that a particular devicehas received more than a threshold number of failed login attempts forthe same user account within a defined period of time. As anotherexample, a query for detecting a particular type of malware infectionmay search for event data indicating that a device recently startingsending out a particular type of network request to a particular networkaddress falling within a known range of potentially malicious networkaddresses. These and other types of queries may be created using one ormore graphical interfaces, and the queries may be further configured toexecute on a periodic basis to enable ongoing and automatic detection ofoccurrences of potential network security threats.

At block 1904, based on the query having identified the security threatrelated to the endpoint device, a determination is made to collect oneor more items of forensic data from one or more endpoint devices in theinformation technology or security environment. For example, a searchhead 1810 or other component of a data intake and query system 1800 maydetermine to collect one or more items of forensic data from one or moreendpoint devices 1802 based on the identification of the security threatat block 1902. In an embodiment, the determination to collect to the oneor more items of forensic data may be based on an ad hoc request from ananalyst or other user, based on an association of the query with one ormore data collection packages or other forensic data collectionrequests, or based on any other conditions.

In one embodiment, the determination to collect the one or more items offorensic data may be based on an ad hoc request from an analyst or otheruser to collect the forensic data. For example, the query executed atblock 1902 may identify the events and cause the creation of one or morenotable events. An analyst may view a dashboard displaying indicationsof the notable events and provide input indicating that forensic datacollection is desired from affected endpoint devices. In an embodiment,the endpoint devices from which is it determined to collect the forensicdata may be selected based on an association with the particular querythat identified the events (e.g., forensic data may be collected from aselected set of endpoints each time a particular query identifiespotential malware activity in a system), based on information containedin the identified events (e.g., the event data may include identifiersof one or more endpoint devices relevant to the event data), based on auser selection of the endpoint devices (e.g., an analyst may selectparticular endpoint devices from which to collect additional forensicdata using a graphical interface), or based on any other information.

In an embodiment, the types of forensic data to collect from theselected endpoint devices similarly may be based on an association ofthe types of data with the particular query that identified the events(e.g., one or more preconfigured data collection packages may beassociated with the query), based on information contained in theidentified events (e.g., particular data collection packages may beissued when particular types of data are identified), based on userselection of particular types of data or data collection packages forcollection, etc.

In one embodiment, an analyst may associate one or more queries withdata collection requests using one or more graphical interfacesgenerated by the network security application. For example, a networksecurity application may generate a forensic data collection managementconsole interface which, among other features, enables users to viewindications of endpoint devices under management (e.g., displaying alist of endpoint devices, a geographic map of endpoint devices, or anyother visualization of endpoint devices), to create queries foridentifying particular types of security threats, and to createassociations between queries and particular endpoint devices or forensicdata to be collected in response to the queries identifying data ofinterest.

In an embodiment, in response to the determination to collect one ormore items of forensic data from the one or more endpoint devices, asearch head 1810 or other system component may store data associatingthe endpoint devices with the data collection request. For example, thedata associating endpoint devices and data collection requests may bestored such that a search head 1810 or other component can check forpending data collection requests each time a particular endpoint devicesends a check-in message, or in response to any other data collectiontriggering conditions. As one example, the data may be stored as a setof mappings between particular endpoint devices and items of forensicdata to be collected from the endpoint devices. In one embodiment, theset of mappings is stored in a key-value store, where the keys representidentifiers of endpoint devices, and the values identify the forensicdata items or data collection packages to be collected from the endpointdevices. In other examples, the data collection requests may not bestored, and instead instructions may be sent to endpoint devicesdirectly in response to a determination to collect forensic data from anendpoint device.

At block 1906, instructions are sent to at least one endpoint of the oneor more endpoint devices causing the at least one endpoint device tosend the one or more items of forensic data for storage. For example, asearch head 1810 or other component of a data intake and query system1800 may send the instructions to at least one endpoint device 1802causing a forwarder 1804 associated with the endpoint device to collectand send the requested data to one or more indexers 1806 for indexing orstorage in a data store 1808. As indicated above, the instructions maybe sent to the endpoint devices 1802 directly in response to thedetermination to collect the items of forensic data, in response toreceiving a “check-in” message from endpoint devices for which a datacollection request is pending, or based on any other triggeringcondition.

In one embodiment, endpoint devices 1802 periodically check-in with asearch head 1810 or other component to determine whether any datacollection requests are pending for the endpoint device. For example,each forwarder 1804 may periodically send a check-in message to a searchhead 1810 or other system component, the message including an identifierof the endpoint device. In response to receiving a check-in message, asearch head 1810 may use the endpoint device identifier included in themessage to determine whether there are any data collection requestsstored for the device (e.g., as generated at block 1904) and, if so, tosend instructions to the endpoint device. Each endpoint device may senda check-in message on a recurring time basis (e.g., once a minute, oncean hour, etc.), send a check-in message based on random time intervals,or in response to any other conditions.

In an embodiment, the identifier included in a check-in message sentfrom endpoint devices is used by a search head 1810 or other systemcomponent to identify the endpoint device sending the check-in message.In some examples, the identifier may be used to uniquely identify theendpoint device among a plurality of endpoint devices of a networkedsystem. In other examples, two or more endpoint devices may share a samedevice identifier. The identifier may include, for example, one or moreof a host name of the client device, a domain with which the clientdevice is associated, an IP address of the client device, MAC address,or any combinations thereof. The identifier may, for example, serve as akey to search a key-value store for pending data collection requests forthe corresponding endpoint device, as described above. The pending datacollection requests may identify one or more particular items ofinformation to be collected (e.g., particular types of data to collect,particular file directories from which to collect data, particular filesto collect, etc.), identify one or more data collection packages forcollection (e.g., defining a preconfigured set of data items to becollected), or identify any other information for instructing endpointdevices to collect forensic data.

In one embodiment, instead of or in addition to endpoint devicesperiodically sending check-in messages, one or more centralized systemcomponents may send data collection requests to endpoint devices inresponse to creation of the data collection requests, or at any othertime. For example, some networked systems may include a number ofmonitored endpoint devices such that if a significant portion of theendpoint device attempted to send a check-in message near in time to oneanother, the messages potentially could overwhelm a system componentreceiving the messages. In these and other instances, various check-inmessage implementations may be used to avoid the number of check-inmessages being sent by endpoint devices overwhelming one or morecentralized system components. For example, each endpoint device may begiven a unique time interval at which to send check-in messages,endpoint devices may coordinate with each other the sending of check-inmessages, and so forth.

In an embodiment, the instructions sent to the at least one endpointdevice causes the at least one endpoint device to send the requestedforensic data for storage. For example, a forwarder 1804 of an endpointdevice 1802 may collect the requested data from the endpoint device andsend the data to an indexer 1806 for storage in a data store 1808. Inone embodiment, a forwarder 1804 optionally generates event data basedon the collected forensic data (e.g., by segmenting the forensic datainto events, associating time stamps with each event, transforming theevents, etc.) to one or more indexers associated with the endpointdevice. For example, depending on a number of endpoint devices in thesystem, each endpoint device may send the data to a same indexer or eachendpoint device may send the data to respective indexers of a clusteredset of indexers. In other examples, a forwarder 1804 of an endpointdevice 1802 sends the collected raw forensic data to an indexer 1806 orother system component which performs event processing on the data.

3.3. Correlating Forensic Data with Non-Forensic Data

In an embodiment, a network security application is configured tocorrelate forensic data (e.g., data collected from endpoint devices asdescribed above in Section 3.2) and non-forensic data (e.g., datarelated to activity of one or more other components of an informationtechnology or security environment). For example, forensic andnon-forensic data may be correlated based on one or more queries whichinclude search criteria identifying a relationship between event dataderived from forensic data and event data derived from non-forensicdata. The relationship between the forensic data and non-forensic data,for example, may be based on one or more shared time ranges, deviceidentifiers, network addresses, etc. The correlation of forensic andnon-forensic data may be used to provide a deeper understanding ofactivity within an information technology or security environmentinvolving multiple system components or different types of computingdevice activity. In an embodiment, a network security applicationfurther enables generation and display of graphical interfaces whichenable security analysts and other users to view information related tovarious types of forensic and non-forensic data correlations.

FIG. 20 is a flow diagram 2000 illustrating an example process forcorrelating forensic data collected from various devices of a networkcomputer system with other types of non-forensic data. The variouselements of flow diagram 2000 may be performed in a variety of systems,including systems such as a data intake and query system 1800 describedabove. In an embodiment, each of the processes described in connectionwith the functional blocks described below may be implemented using oneor more computer programs, other software elements, or digital logic inany of a general-purpose computer or a special-purpose computer, whileperforming data retrieval, transformation, and storage operations thatinvolve interacting with and transforming the physical state of memoryof the computer.

At block 2002, forensic data related to activity of an endpoint deviceof an information technology or security environment is received fromthe endpoint device. For example, the forensic data may relate to theactivity of an endpoint device 1802 or other component of the dataintake and query system 1800. As described above in Section 3.2,forensic data collected from endpoint devices may include, but is notlimited to, file system information, registry information, serviceinformation, process information, file information, and any otherinformation related to the activity, operation, or status of endpointdevices. Forensic data may further include data collected from othersystem components (e.g., web servers, email servers, network securitydevices, etc.), and may also include data collected from componentsexternal to the system (e.g., external security applications, useridentity management applications, etc.). In an embodiment, the forensicdata may be stored at one or more data stores 1808, at one or moreexternal data storage systems, or at any other storage location.

At block 2004, non-forensic data related to activity in the informationtechnology or security environment is received from at least one secondcomponent. For example, the at least one second component similarly maybe an endpoint device 1802, one or more other system components, or acomponent external to the data intake and query system 1800. Asdescribed above, non-forensic data may include, but is not limited to,network data, log data, wire data, data from external applications, orany other type of machine-generated data. In some examples, the endpointdevice and the second component are separate and distinct components(e.g., the endpoint device may be a particular endpoint device 1802, andthe second component may be a separate email server, firewallapplication, router, etc.). In other examples, the endpoint device andthe second component may be the same device or separate componentswithin a same device. For example, a particular endpoint device 1802 maysend non-forensic log data, wire data, etc., as part of routine datacollection from the device, and the same endpoint device may also sendone or more items of forensic data in response to received datacollection requests.

At block 2006, the forensic data is segmented into events. For example,a forwarder 1804, indexer 1806, or other component of a data intake andquery system 1800 may generate events based on the received forensicdata and store the event data in a data store 1808.

At block 2008, the non-forensic data is segmented into events. Similarto the generation of event data based on forensic data at block 2006,the non-forensic data may be segmented into events by a forwarder 1804,a forwarder 204, an indexer 1806, or any other component of a dataintake and query system 1800.

At block 2010, for each of the events, a time stamp is determined forthe event, the time stamp is associated with the event, and the event isstored in a field-searchable data store. In an embodiment, each eventcan be associated with a time stamp that is derived from raw data in theevent, determined through interpolation between temporally proximateevents having known time stamps, or determined based on otherconfigurable rules for associating time stamps with events, etc. Forexample, any of a forwarder 1804, a forwarder 204, indexer 1806, orother component may determine a time stamp for each event. The timestamp and associated event may be stored in a field-searchable datastore, such as a data store 1808, or at any other storage location(e.g., one or more external data storage systems).

In one embodiment, the event data derived from the forensic data and thenon-forensic data is stored in the same data intake and query system(e.g., stored at one or more data stores 1808 of a data intake and querysystem 1800). In other embodiments, some or all of the forensic ornon-forensic event data may be stored by one or more external datastorage systems or external applications such as, for example, anexternal malware and virus application, an external firewall device,etc. In yet other examples, one or more forwarders 1804 may generate andstore event data based on forensic data, or forwarders 1804 may generateevent data on-demand to search requests, without sending the forensicdata to indexers 1806 or other components for centralized storage.

In an embodiment, a same component may perform the operations describedin each of blocks 2006-2010, or one or more of the operations may beperformed by separate components. For example, same or differentcomponents of a data intake and query system 1800 may segment each ofthe forensic data and non-forensic data, associate the segmented datawith the time stamps, and cause the data to be stored at one or morestorage locations.

At block 2012, a query is received that includes search criteriaidentifying a relationship between an event derived from thenon-forensic data and an event derived from the forensic data. Forexample, a search head 1810 or other component of a data intake andquery system 1800 may receive the query via a graphical interface, basedon a configured recurring query, or from any other source. In general,search criteria identifying a relationship between events derived fromthe forensic data and the non-forensic data may include relationshipssuch as one or more shared or similar time ranges, one or more shared orsimilar device identifiers, one or more shared or similar networkaddresses, one or more shared or similar file identifiers, etc.

As one example of correlating forensic and non-forensic data, a networksecurity application may correlate non-forensic event data indicatingthat an endpoint device received one or more phishing emails withforensic data collected from the affected endpoint device indicatingfile names or signatures of files stored on disk at the endpoint device.For example, the correlated data may enable an analyst to more easilyverify whether a user associated with the endpoint device downloaded andexecuted an attachment associated with the phishing email, therebycausing malware to be installed at the endpoint device. The non-forensicdata related to the phishing emails may be correlated with the forensicdata, for example, based on detecting in both sets of data one or moreof the same or similar file names, file hash signatures, networkaddresses, or time ranges.

As another example, a network security application may correlate varioustypes of alerts (e.g., generated based on one or more recurring queries,received from an internal or external antivirus or malware application,etc.) with forensic data collected from endpoint devices. For example,if an antivirus application generates and sends a malware alert to thenetwork security application, data associated with the alert may becorrelated with forensic data collected from the affected system. Inthis example, the network security application may generate a displayindicating whether or not the malware on the affected endpoint device iscurrently running, indicating registry entries or services believed tobe created by the malware, and any other process, service, or fileinformation on disk which potentially may be relevant. The displays mayfurther show network or web traffic related to the endpoint device whichoccurred within a time range around when the malware was detected. Thisnetwork traffic information, for example, may indicate whether themalware is beaconing, exfiltrating data from the endpoint device orother internal data source, or communicating with an external commandand control server.

As yet another example, a network security application may correlatenetwork alerts (e.g., alerts identified based on one or more queries,based on alerts received from one or more network devices and or otherapplications, etc.) with forensic data collected from endpoint devices.For example, if the network security application detects one or morenetwork alerts (e.g., “Unusual Volume of Network Traffic” or “Web Shellcommand request Events detected”), those alerts can be correlated withforensic data collected from affected endpoint devices. The correlationof the forensic data, for example, may identify a running process at anendpoint device that is generating an unusual volume of traffic, as wellas identify an executable file on disk and related persistencemechanisms, file-system characteristics (filename, hash, location,timestamps) on disk, and captured network traffic between when the filewas created and when the data was detected, etc.

As yet another example, a network security application may correlatenon-forensic data corresponding to access and identity alerts (e.g.,“Brute Force Access Behavior” or “Activity from expired User Identity”)with forensic data collected from endpoint devices related to thealerts. For example, the forensic data collected may include informationcollected from an endpoint device including user account information,user login activity logs, network traffic data, etc. In this example,the non-forensic data corresponding to the access and identity alertsmay be correlated to the forensic data based on one or more same orsimilar user account names, network addresses, event time ranges, etc.

Referring again to FIG. 20 , at block 2014, the query is executed. Forexample, a search head 1810 may execute the query to identify at leastone data item from the forensic data collected at block 2002 with atleast one data item from the non-forensic data collected at block 2004,where each of the data items may be stored at one or more data stores1808, external data storage systems, or any other storage location. Asindicated described above, execution of the query may involveidentifying one or more relationships between the stored forensic dataand non-forensic data based on criteria included in the executed query.

In an embodiment, a network security application is able to generatevarious graphical interfaces displaying indications of data correlatedbased on both forensic and non-forensic data. For example, the networksecurity application may include one or more graphical interfacesenabling users to specify queries to perform the correlations, or thecorrelations may be performed based on one or more preconfiguredqueries. The network security application may further include interfacesdisplaying correlated forensic and non-forensic data on a same graphicalinterface. For example, referring to the example above of correlatingphishing emails with files stored on endpoint devices, a graphical userinterface may display on the same interface indications of event datarelated to the receipt of the phishing emails by one or more emailservers or endpoint devices, further display indications of event datarelated to file names or file signatures collected from affectedendpoint devices, or display other correlated event data. By displayingthe correlated information from the forensic data and the non-forensicdata on the same graphical user interface, for example, an analyst orother user can more easily verify and remediate potential networksecurity threats evidenced by both forensic and non-forensic data.

4.0. Example Embodiments

Examples of some embodiments are represented, without limitation, in thefollowing clauses:

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: executing a query for identifying a security threat relatedto an endpoint device based at least in part on data from a component ofan information technology or security environment that is not theendpoint device; and based on the query having identified the securitythreat related to the endpoint device, automatically collecting forensicdata from the endpoint device that provides further information aboutthe security threat.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein automatically collecting forensic data from theendpoint device comprises sending instructions to the endpoint devicecausing the endpoint device to send the forensic data for storage.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein automatically collecting forensic data from theendpoint device comprises sending instructions to the endpoint devicecausing the endpoint device to generate event data based on the forensicdata.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein automatically collecting forensic data from theendpoint device comprises: receiving, from the endpoint device, amessage including an identifier of the endpoint device; determining,based on the identifier of the endpoint device and based on the queryhaving identified the security threat related to the endpoint device, toinstruct the endpoint device to send the forensic data for storage,analysis, or processing; and sending instructions to the endpoint devicecausing the endpoint device to send the forensic data for storage,analysis, or processing.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: receiving, from the endpoint device, a message including anidentifier of the endpoint device, wherein the message is one of aplurality of messages periodically received from the endpoint device;determining, based on the identifier of the endpoint device and based onthe query having identified the security threat related to the endpointdevice, to instruct the endpoint device send the forensic data forstorage or analysis; and sending instructions to the endpoint devicecausing the endpoint device to send the forensic data for storage oranalysis.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein the query is executed periodically.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein executing the query includes searching for event datastored in a field-searchable data store.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein executing the query includes searching for event datastored in a field-searchable data store, the event data comprising timestamped events that include a portion of raw machine data created by acomponent of the information technology or security environment andwhich relates to activity of the component in the information technologyor security environment.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein executing the query includes searching for event datastored in a field-searchable data store using a late-binding schema.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: segmenting the collected forensic data into events, eachevent containing a portion of the collected forensic data; and for eachevent, determining a time stamp for the event, associating the timestamp with the event, and storing the event in a field-searchable datastore.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein executing the query includes searching for event datastored in a field-searchable data store, and wherein the collectedforensic data is stored in the field-searchable data store.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein executing the query includes searching for event datastored in a field-searchable data store, and wherein the collectedforensic data is stored as event data in the field-searchable datastore.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein executing the query includes searching for event datastored in a field-searchable data store; receiving a second query thatincludes search criteria identifying a relationship between a firstevent stored in the field-searchable data store and a second eventderived from the forensic data; and executing the second query.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein the endpoint device is one of: a desktop computer, aworkstation, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a mobile device.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein the forensic data includes one or more of: filesystem information collected from the endpoint device, registryinformation collected from the endpoint device, information related toone or more services running on the endpoint device, information relatedto processes running on the endpoint device, a file stored on theendpoint device.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein the query includes searching for event data stored ina field-searchable data store, the event data including events derivedfrom one or more of: log data, wire data, server data, network data.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: storing a mapping between endpoint device and forensic datato be collected from the endpoint device.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: storing a mapping between the endpoint device and forensicdata to be collected from the endpoint device, wherein the mapping isstored as a key-value store mapping in a key-value store.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: causing display of an identification of endpoint devices fromwhich a check-in message has been received.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: receiving input to create a periodic forensic data collectionrequest for one or more selected endpoint devices of the informationtechnology or security environment.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: receiving, from an endpoint device of an informationtechnology or security environment, forensic data related to activity ofthe endpoint device; receiving, from a second component of theinformation technology or security environment that is not the endpointdevice, non-forensic data related to activity in the informationtechnology or security environment; segmenting the forensic data intoevents; segmenting the non-forensic data into events; for each of theevents, determining a time stamp for the event, associating the timestamp with the event, and storing the event in a field-searchable datastore; receiving a query that includes search criteria identifying arelationship between an event derived from the non-forensic data and anevent derived from the forensic data; and executing the query.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein the forensic data related to activity of the endpointdevice including one or more of: file system information, registryinformation, service information, process information, and fileinformation, log data.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein the non-forensic data includes one or more of:firewall data, router data, email server data, and user identitymanagement system data, log data.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein the forensic data includes file information relatedto an endpoint device, and wherein the non-forensic data includes emailserver data, and wherein the executing the query identifies one or moreevents indicating a phishing attack against the endpoint device.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein the forensic data includes registry informationrelated to an endpoint device, and wherein the non-forensic dataincludes a malware alert from a security application, wherein theexecuting the query identifies one or more events indicating a malwareattack against the endpoint device.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein the forensic data includes login history informationrelated to an endpoint device, and wherein the non-forensic dataincludes information from a user identity management system, and whereinthe executing the query identifies one or more events indicating abrute-force login attack against the endpoint device.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: causing display, on a graphical user interface, ofindications of one or more events identified in response to executingthe query.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein the endpoint device is one of: a desktop computer, aworkstation, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a mobile device.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein the second component interacts with the endpointdevice via a network.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein each of the events includes a portion of raw machinedata created by a component of the information technology or securityenvironment and related to activity of the component in the informationtechnology or security environment.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein executing the query includes searching for event datain the field-searchable data store.

In an embodiment, a method or non-transitory computer readable mediumcomprises: wherein executing the query includes searching for event datain the field-searchable data store using a late-binding schema.

Other examples of these and other embodiments are found throughout thisdisclosure.

5.0. Implementation Mechanism—Hardware Overview

According to one embodiment, the techniques described herein areimplemented by one or more special-purpose computing devices. Thespecial-purpose computing devices may be desktop computer systems,portable computer systems, handheld devices, networking devices or anyother device that incorporates hard-wired or program logic to implementthe techniques. The special-purpose computing devices may be hard-wiredto perform the techniques, or may include digital electronic devicessuch as one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) orfield programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) that are persistently programmedto perform the techniques, or may include one or more general purposehardware processors programmed to perform the techniques pursuant toprogram instructions in firmware, memory, other storage, or acombination thereof. Such special-purpose computing devices may alsocombine custom hard-wired logic, ASICs, or FPGAs with custom programmingto accomplish the techniques.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram that illustrates a computer system 2100utilized in implementing the above-described techniques, according to anembodiment. Computer system 2100 may be, for example, a desktopcomputing device, laptop computing device, tablet, smartphone, serverappliance, computing mainframe, multimedia device, handheld device,networking apparatus, or any other suitable device.

Computer system 2100 includes one or more busses 2102 or othercommunication mechanism for communicating information, and one or morehardware processors 2104 coupled with busses 2102 for processinginformation. Hardware processors 2104 may be, for example, generalpurpose microprocessors. Busses 2102 may include various internal orexternal components, including, without limitation, internal processoror memory busses, a Serial ATA bus, a PCI Express bus, a UniversalSerial Bus, a HyperTransport bus, an Infiniband bus, or any othersuitable wired or wireless communication channel.

Computer system 2100 also includes a main memory 2106, such as a randomaccess memory (RAM) or other dynamic or volatile storage device, coupledto bus 2102 for storing information and instructions to be executed byprocessor 2104. Main memory 2106 also may be used for storing temporaryvariables or other intermediate information during execution ofinstructions to be executed by processor 2104. Such instructions, whenstored in non-transitory storage media accessible to processor 2104,render computer system 2100 a special-purpose machine that is customizedto perform the operations specified in the instructions.

Computer system 2100 further includes one or more read only memories(ROM) 2108 or other static storage devices coupled to bus 2102 forstoring static information and instructions for processor 2104. One ormore storage devices 2110, such as a solid-state drive (SSD), magneticdisk, optical disk, or other suitable non-volatile storage device, isprovided and coupled to bus 2102 for storing information andinstructions.

Computer system 2100 may be coupled via bus 2102 to one or more displays2112 for presenting information to a computer user. For instance,computer system 2100 may be connected via a High-Definition MultimediaInterface (HDMI) cable or other suitable cabling to a Liquid CrystalDisplay (LCD) monitor, or via a wireless connection such as peer-to-peerWi-Fi Direct connection to a Light-Emitting Diode (LED) television.Other examples of suitable types of displays 2112 may include, withoutlimitation, plasma display devices, projectors, cathode ray tube (CRT)monitors, electronic paper, virtual reality headsets, braille terminal,or any other suitable device for outputting information to a computeruser. In an embodiment, any suitable type of output device, such as, forinstance, an audio speaker or printer, may be utilized instead of adisplay 2112.

One or more input devices 2114 are coupled to bus 2102 for communicatinginformation and command selections to processor 2104. One example of aninput device 2114 is a keyboard, including alphanumeric and other keys.Another type of user input device 2114 is cursor control 2116, such as amouse, a trackball, or cursor direction keys for communicating directioninformation and command selections to processor 2104 and for controllingcursor movement on display 2112. This input device typically has twodegrees of freedom in two axes, a first axis (e.g., x) and a second axis(e.g., y), that allows the device to specify positions in a plane. Yetother examples of suitable input devices 2114 include a touch-screenpanel affixed to a display 2112, cameras, microphones, accelerometers,motion detectors, or other sensors. In an embodiment, a network-basedinput device 2114 may be utilized. In such an embodiment, user input orother information or commands may be relayed via routers or switches ona Local Area Network (LAN) or other suitable shared network, or via apeer-to-peer network, from the input device 2114 to a network link 2120on the computer system 2100.

A computer system 2100 may implement techniques described herein usingcustomized hard-wired logic, one or more ASICs or FPGAs, firmware orprogram logic which in combination with the computer system causes orprograms computer system 2100 to be a special-purpose machine. Accordingto one embodiment, the techniques herein are performed by computersystem 2100 in response to processor 2104 executing one or moresequences of one or more instructions contained in main memory 2106.Such instructions may be read into main memory 2106 from another storagemedium, such as storage device 2110. Execution of the sequences ofinstructions contained in main memory 2106 causes processor 2104 toperform the process steps described herein. In alternative embodiments,hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination withsoftware instructions.

The term “storage media” as used herein refers to any non-transitorymedia that store data or instructions that cause a machine to operate ina specific fashion. Such storage media may comprise non-volatile mediaor volatile media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, optical ormagnetic disks, such as storage device 2110. Volatile media includesdynamic memory, such as main memory 2106. Common forms of storage mediainclude, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, solidstate drive, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic data storage medium, aCD-ROM, any other optical data storage medium, any physical medium withpatterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, NVRAM, anyother memory chip or cartridge.

Storage media is distinct from but may be used in conjunction withtransmission media. Transmission media participates in transferringinformation between storage media. For example, transmission mediaincludes coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, including thewires that comprise bus 2102. Transmission media can also take the formof acoustic or light waves, such as those generated during radio-waveand infra-red data communications.

Various forms of media may be involved in carrying one or more sequencesof one or more instructions to processor 2104 for execution. Forexample, the instructions may initially be carried on a magnetic disk ora solid state drive of a remote computer. The remote computer can loadthe instructions into its dynamic memory and use a modem to send theinstructions over a network, such as a cable network or cellularnetwork, as modulate signals. A modem local to computer system 2100 canreceive the data on the network and demodulate the signal to decode thetransmitted instructions. Appropriate circuitry can then place the dataon bus 2102. Bus 2102 carries the data to main memory 2106, from whichprocessor 2104 retrieves and executes the instructions. The instructionsreceived by main memory 2106 may optionally be stored on storage device2110 either before or after execution by processor 2104.

A computer system 2100 may also include, in an embodiment, one or morecommunication interfaces 2118 coupled to bus 2102. A communicationinterface 2118 provides a data communication coupling, typicallytwo-way, to a network link 2120 that is connected to a local network2122. For example, a communication interface 2118 may be an integratedservices digital network (ISDN) card, cable modem, satellite modem, or amodem to provide a data communication connection to a corresponding typeof telephone line. As another example, the one or more communicationinterfaces 2118 may include a local area network (LAN) card to provide adata communication connection to a compatible LAN. As yet anotherexample, the one or more communication interfaces 2118 may include awireless network interface controller, such as an 802.11-basedcontroller, Bluetooth controller, Long Term Evolution (LTE) modem, orother types of wireless interfaces. In any such implementation,communication interface 2118 sends and receives electrical,electromagnetic, or optical signals that carry digital data streamsrepresenting various types of information.

Network link 2120 typically provides data communication through one ormore networks to other data devices. For example, network link 2120 mayprovide a connection through local network 2122 to a host computer 2124or to data equipment operated by a Service Provider 2126. ServiceProvider 2126, which may for example be an Internet Service Provider(ISP), in turn provides data communication services through a wide areanetwork, such as the world wide packet data communication network nowcommonly referred to as the “Internet” 2128. Local network 2122 andInternet 2128 both use electrical, electromagnetic or optical signalsthat carry digital data streams. The signals through the variousnetworks and the signals on network link 2120 and through communicationinterface 2118, which carry the digital data to and from computer system2100, are example forms of transmission media.

In an embodiment, computer system 2100 can send messages and receivedata, including program code or other types of instructions, through thenetwork(s), network link 2120, and communication interface 2118. In theInternet example, a server 2130 might transmit a requested code for anapplication program through Internet 2128, ISP 2126, local network 2122and communication interface 2118. The received code may be executed byprocessor 2104 as it is received, or stored in storage device 2110, orother non-volatile storage for later execution. As another example,information received via a network link 2120 may be interpreted orprocessed by a software component of the computer system 2100, such as aweb browser, application, or server, which in turn issues instructionsbased thereon to a processor 2104, possibly via an operating system orother intermediate layers of software components.

In an embodiment, some or all of the systems described herein may be orcomprise server computer systems, including one or more computer systems2100 that collectively implement various components of the system as aset of server-side processes. The server computer systems may includeweb server, application server, database server, or other conventionalserver components that certain above-described components utilize toprovide the described functionality. The server computer systems mayreceive network-based communications comprising input data from any of avariety of sources, including without limitation user-operated clientcomputing devices such as desktop computers, tablets, or smartphones,remote sensing devices, or other server computer systems.

In an embodiment, certain server components may be implemented in fullor in part using “cloud”-based components that are coupled to thesystems by one or more networks, such as the Internet. The cloud-basedcomponents may expose interfaces by which they provide processing,storage, software, or other resources to other components of thesystems. In an embodiment, the cloud-based components may be implementedby third-party entities, on behalf of another entity for whom thecomponents are deployed. In other embodiments, however, the describedsystems may be implemented entirely by computer systems owned andoperated by a single entity.

In an embodiment, an apparatus comprises a processor and is configuredto perform any of the foregoing methods. In an embodiment, anon-transitory computer readable storage medium, storing softwareinstructions, which when executed by one or more processors causeperformance of any of the foregoing methods.

6.0. Extensions and Alternatives

As used herein, the terms “first,” “second,” “certain,” and “particular”are used as naming conventions to distinguish queries, plans,representations, steps, objects, devices, or other items from eachother, so that these items may be referenced after they have beenintroduced. Unless otherwise specified herein, the use of these termsdoes not imply an ordering, timing, or any other characteristic of thereferenced items.

In the foregoing specification, embodiments of the invention have beendescribed with reference to numerous specific details that may vary fromimplementation to implementation. Thus, the sole and exclusive indicatorof what is the invention, and is intended by the applicants to be theinvention, is the set of claims that issue from this application, in thespecific form in which such claims issue, including any subsequentcorrection. In this regard, although specific claim dependencies are setout in the claims of this application, it is to be noted that thefeatures of the dependent claims of this application may be combined asappropriate with the features of other dependent claims and with thefeatures of the independent claims of this application, and not merelyaccording to the specific dependencies recited in the set of claims.Moreover, although separate embodiments are discussed herein, anycombination of embodiments or partial embodiments discussed herein maybe combined to form further embodiments.

Any definitions expressly set forth herein for terms contained in suchclaims shall govern the meaning of such terms as used in the claims.Hence, no limitation, element, property, feature, advantage or attributethat is not expressly recited in a claim should limit the scope of suchclaim in any way. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to beregarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:executing a query, the query including an association specifying typesof forensic data to collect from one or more endpoint devices in aninformation technology (IT) environment when execution of the queryidentifies an occurrence of a security threat at an endpoint device ofthe one or more endpoint devices; identifying, based on the executing ofthe query, an occurrence of the security threat at the endpoint device;based on the identifying of the occurrence of the security threat at theendpoint device, collecting, from the endpoint device, forensic datacorresponding to the types of forensic data specified by theassociation; and storing the forensic data in a data store.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein collecting the forensic data from theendpoint device comprises sending instructions to the endpoint devicecausing the endpoint device to send the forensic data to anothercomponent on a network.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting theforensic data from the endpoint device comprises sending instructions tothe endpoint device causing the endpoint device to generate timestampedevent data based on the forensic data.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereincollecting the forensic data from the endpoint device comprises:receiving, from the endpoint device, a message including an identifierof the endpoint device; determining, based on the identifier of theendpoint device and based on the query having identified the occurrenceof the security threat at the endpoint device, to instruct the endpointdevice to send the forensic data corresponding to the types of forensicdata specified by the association; and sending instructions to theendpoint device causing the endpoint device to send the forensic data toanother component on a network.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinexecuting the query includes searching for event data stored in afield-searchable data store.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the eventdata comprises timestamped events that include a portion of raw machinedata created by a component of the IT environment and that relates toactivity of the component in the IT environment.
 7. The method of claim5, wherein searching for the event data stored in the field-searchabledata store comprises using a late-binding schema.
 8. The method of claim5, wherein the forensic data is stored as event data in thefield-searchable data store.
 9. The method of claim 5, furthercomprising: receiving a second query that includes search criteriaidentifying a relationship between a first event stored in thefield-searchable data store and a second event derived from the forensicdata; and executing the second query.
 10. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: segmenting the forensic data into events, each eventcontaining a portion of the forensic data; and for each event,determining a timestamp for the event, associating the timestamp withthe event, and storing the event in a field-searchable data store.
 11. Anon-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructionsthat, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance ofoperations comprising: executing a query, the query including anassociation specifying types of forensic data to collect from one ormore endpoint devices in an information technology (IT) environment whenexecution of the query identifies an occurrence of a security threat atan endpoint device of the one or more endpoint devices; identifying,based on the executing of the query, an occurrence of the securitythreat at the endpoint device; based on the identifying of theoccurrence of the security threat at the endpoint device, collecting,from the endpoint device, forensic data corresponding to the types offorensic data specified by the association; and storing the forensicdata in a data store.
 12. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium of claim 11, wherein executing the query includes searching forevent data stored in a field-searchable data store.
 13. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein theevent data comprises timestamped events that include a portion of rawmachine data created by a component of the IT environment and thatrelates to activity of the component in the IT environment.
 14. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 storingfurther instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors,cause performance of further operations comprising: receiving a secondquery that includes search criteria identifying a relationship between afirst event stored in the field-searchable data store and a second eventderived from the forensic data; and executing the second query.
 15. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 storingfurther instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors,cause performance of further operations comprising: segmenting theforensic data into events, each event containing a portion of theforensic data; and for each event, determining a timestamp for theevent, associating the timestamp with the event, and storing the eventin a field-searchable data store.
 16. An apparatus, comprising: one ormore processors; and a non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumcoupled to the one or more processors, the computer-readable storagemedium storing instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the apparatus to: execute a query, the query includingan association specifying types of forensic data to collect from one ormore endpoint devices in an information technology (IT) environment whenexecution of the query identifies an occurrence of a security threat atan endpoint device of the one or more endpoint devices; identify, basedon the executing of the query, an occurrence of the security threat atthe endpoint device; based on the identifying of the occurrence of thesecurity threat at the endpoint device, collect, from the endpointdevice, forensic data corresponding to the types of forensic dataspecified by the association; and store the forensic data in a datastore.
 17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein executing the queryincludes searching for event data stored in a field-searchable datastore.
 18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the event data comprisestimestamped events that include a portion of raw machine data created bya component of the IT environment and that relates to activity of thecomponent in the IT environment.
 19. The apparatus of claim 17, thecomputer-readable storage medium storing further instructions that, whenexecuted by the one or more processors, further cause the apparatus to:receive a second query that includes search criteria identifying arelationship between a first event stored in the field-searchable datastore and a second event derived from the forensic data; and execute thesecond query.
 20. The apparatus of claim 16, the computer-readablestorage medium storing further instructions that, when executed by theone or more processors, further cause the apparatus to: segment theforensic data into events, each event containing a portion of theforensic data; and for each event, determine a timestamp for the event,associate the timestamp with the event, and store the event in afield-searchable data store.